Mass Dragon Effect I: Shadows of the Past
by raw666
Summary: After humanity's discovery of dilithium crystals and later the darkspawn, technology began to drastically change for the Mass Effect Universe. From space exploration to alliance that rivals the Council, the galaxy has entered into a new golden era. Will it be enough for John and Jane Shepard to stop the cycle of extinction or will Saren succeed in bringing back the Reapers?
1. Chapter 1: The Nominated SPECTRE

Mass Dragon Effect I: Shadows of the Past

Chapter 1: The Nominated SPECTRE

**Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Age or Mass Effect, as they both belong to Bioware and have the copyrights for them.**

**Beta Reader: Albert**

**Last Update: 9/14/2016**

**Location: Undisclosed**

**Human Date: February 1, 2183**

In a dimly lit room, a holographic conference call was taking place that spanned thousands of light years between the various participants that included four different species. The two initiating the call were a human and a krogan, bipedal organics that were the main ambassadors for their organization. The human was an old, thin man with a small chin and wrinkled skin that almost hung from his face making his head take-on a box-like shape with calculating brownish grey eyes.

The krogan was like others of his kind, are massive, warm-blooded brown reptile with short, stubby tail, legs, and hands with three short digits, along with their natural shell armor that grows along their back, chest, thighs, arms and hump that stored enough nutrients that lasts them weeks. The krogan ambassador, though stood out from other krogans, as he wore tough clothing instead of body armor over his body. He was also unique in that he had a red, three-point smooth shell with spots along the shell edge. He stood proud, as his green predator (silted) eyes, did not flinch, as he stood there, unafraid as he and his fellow ambassador were stared down by their superiors.

His superior was a quarian, a purple skin species that looked remarkably human, especially since quarians have similar gender-based hair and body structure. His superior was female with short hair tied into a bund with a thin face, and arms and legs that seemed to bend in ways humans could not bend, even though quarian legs resembles a Earth dog. Her eyes seemed to have no iris as both her pupil were a pale silver color dignified by the two slanted creases above her eyebrows.

Her airtight suit rapped in a purple cloth gave warning lights as she let out an agitated sigh, "Ambassador Nakmor Utag, Ambassador Donnel Udina, what does the Citadel Council want with our government now? We already agreed to share and retrieve the… classified device we found on the colony world of Eden Prime in the Exodus Cluster. What more do they want?"

The krogan, Ambassador Nakmor Utag stood tall as he stated, "President Shala'Raan, the Citadel Council have requested that we consider one of our own to become a member of the Council's elite black ops, the SPECTREs, while allowing one of their current SPECTREs to act as a representative for joint operations."

The announcement sent a series of grumbling conservations to pass among the listeners, as a tall, dark skinned human looked thoughtful in his black and white uniform. A uniform that had insignia of Rear Admiral (three gold stripes with two silver stripes) on his shoulder pads and sleeves that spoke authority matched by his sideburns starting to turn grey on his stern yet strong face and chin that matched his deep tone, "I can figure where this is going. The Council wants us to consider one of its members for our elite special forces under my command. It would be the only reason you contacted me during another operation we are handling in Exodus Cluster."

"Yes… the Council wants to extend their influence into the Confederation Alliance of World by taking one of our elite soldiers to order around while dictating what they want through one of their men in the First Battalion," Ambassador Udina scolded at he voiced his own, angry thoughts.

"Or just to improve relationships, just a thought," Ambassador Utag joked around his fellow ambassador, who frowned in response.

"And while we're on the subject of the First Battalion. Mind telling me what operation Rear Admiral David Anderson was conducting in one of the most densely populated clusters in the Confederation's Space and one that holds some of my people's oldest colonies?" Udina asked with a growl.

Anderson stared at his superiors, Grand Admiral Steven Hackett, the commander of the Confederation military to ask if he should speak up. Never was a man more fit to wear the rank of Fleet Admiral (five gold stripes and four silver stripes), or looked with his short white hair, cleanly cut beard, and firm body. Even his elected superior Shala'Raan felt the power of his small, steely blue eyes as he spoke in a firm, scratchy voice that belong to a man in his seventies.

A voice that spoke after a nod from the president to allow him to speak, "At three handed hours, Confederation Standard Time, we received a distress call from Asteroid X57, an asteroid we planned to put in orbit around Terra Nova to mine and eventually turn it into a space station to defend the planet. However, batarian extremist had somehow captured three of our freighters to bypass the CRF (Confederate Recon Force) to take the asteroid and planned to crash it into Terra Nova. I just found out about it a couple of hours ago."

"Is Terra Nova in danger Grand Admiral Hackett? And should I prepare for the appropriate response?" Udina asked with a scold at being kept in the dark.

"It never was," Hackett shook his head. "Our defense forces stationed at Terra Nova and the planetary defense grid would have destroyed the asteroid if it was a threat."

"Needless to say, the plan was never going to work, and we don't even need to destroy the asteroid as my teams on the surface have already taken control of the three Fusion Troches to prevent the asteroid from crashing into Terra Nova. It is why I am here now informing you of the threat instead letting my communication expert handle this call," David Anderson explained to the ambassador before he turned to one of his comrades. "If we're lucky, we can snag a lot of them for the CID (Confederation Intelligence Division) to interrogate."

"Especially as the commander of the region is sending his forces around the cluster to capture any that tries to escape to hand over to Chief Operative Legion's Shadow," Hackett explained to the same comrade that was not organic.

Legion's Shadow was a geth, a black robot that resembled their creators the quarians, but with a single glowing blue eye and as an extra addition to its model, a large antenna/mainframe shaped structure coming off the right side of its back. A unique Legion model that spoke in a mechanical voice that seemed to have clicks imbedded in its voice. "This Unit thanks you Hackett-Grand-Admiral. The Confederation Collective needs to find out exactly how they found out that Asteroid designated X-57 was being moved to Terra Nova from its location in the Exodus's Asgard System." The machine looked annoyed as its eye twisted and its frame flexed. "While the information was not classified, it was not broadcast on civilian channels. So either the Batarians found a way to listen into our military communications, or someone with access told them."

This made the taller than average krogan (0.13m over 2m) snort as he stared with his amused red eyes. A strong character that had scars along the right side his face and along his thick red and purplish black head plate shell that had two sets of seven points, that showed he live longer then his average krogan. Most krogans do not live past fifty due to their violent tendency, but the few that do make it pass that age are well on their way to a thousand, and the Supreme Commander of the Krogan Clan Alliance was a very old and powerful krogan.

"Well beside hearing about conspiracies and how much the batarians fail in life, why don't we get back to the fact the high and mighty Council wants one of their members on the First Battalion," the krogan pointed out before he asked what was on everyone's mind. "Who is the brain behind this suggestion?"

Udina scolded as he stated, "Several SPECTREs led by a turian who would evaluate the candidate, namely One Nihlus Kryik, Supreme Commander Urdnot Wrex."

"A turian?" Wrex asked with a raised eyebrow. "That's a surprising considering the turians are not exactly the best of friends for any of us. After all, they did release the Salarian's Genophage on my own people, slowly killing us with low fertility rate, which would have done us in if the humans hadn't developed the Genofertilization. Not to mention that many of their people, especially the more militant ones, are not too happy we built a separate military force from the Citadel Council."

"Are you saying that the turian is just making the offer to screw with us and make us look bad?" asked Ambassador Nakmor.

Wrex laughed as he smiled, "Depends on the turian."

"I know Nihlus; he's an honorable turian who respects the Confederation's independence, especially if the friendly rivalry increases the military strength on both sides," Anderson explained. "He also thinks my people, at least will eventually return to the Council, with the other three races tagging along."

"So that is probably why he suggested it as a way to get us all back under the Council's control," Shala'Raan stated with a nod.

"Enough of this talk about who is asking this favor!" Udina flared with his legendary temper. "The Council wants our answer by the end of the day, and if we agree to meet up with Nihlus for a joint operation to retrieve… the object on Eden Prime," Udina added with distained at the fact the Confederation was sharing custody with the Council.

The others began to mutter what they thought until Hackett spoke up, "I believe we should consider the offer as it would improve our sometimes strained relationship with the Council. Especially since despite the buildup of our military and political power, we could still be overwhelmed by the Council if war was declared."

"This unit's predicts a ten percent chance of complete victory, ten percent we surrender to the Council if war breaks out, twenty percent chance we gain sizable territory, twenty-five percent no one gains anything, and a thirty-five percent chance we lose territory, assuming nothing goes wrong on our side or the Council follows traditional tactics," Legion's Shadow explained. "It's also assuming that the various warlords of the Terminus Systems remain neutral and do not attack the Council or more likely us if war does happen."

"Well with that cheery thought aside, I, President Shala'Raan, have come to a decision. I agree to the Council's terms for a better alliance between our two governments." Shala'Raan sighed at the headache this would cause. "I'll inform the Senate of the decision while I leave you to pick our candidate. Good luck, Shala'Raan out."

Shala'Raan's image disappeared while those remaining online looked over the list of candidates. There were dozens of them picked from all four founding races, which was amazing since the Council was highly xenophobia when it comes to AIs.

Eventually, Ambassador Nakmor finally pulled out one candidate to consider, "What about Commander Jane Shepard, a human spacer. She has lived aboard starships most of her life."

"Military service is in her family. Both her parents and her brother are in the Navy," Anderson nodded in agreement.

"And she knows how rough the galaxy can be when her old man was killed on Mindoir during a cowardly attack by Batarian Slavers," Wrex stated with a snarl.

"She proved herself during the Skyllian Blitz. Able to rally the populous and hold off enemy forces until reinforcements arrive on the ground," Hackett stated with smile.

Anderson nodded as he added, "She was one of two reasons that Elysium is still standing."

"And later she was able to kill a Thresher Maw when it ambushed her unit on Akuze," Ambassador Nakmor added.

Wrex laughed as he added, "Which is impressive as she killed the thing on foot. I can tell you from experience that it is very difficult thing to pull off."

"Yet losing most of subordinate units could have sever physiological effects on the organic unit," Legion's Shadow pointed out.

"Jane Shepard is a survivor and from what I've seen, the attack made her stronger and care more for the life of her men and the civilians she was protecting," Anderson quickly added to defend one of his officers.

"I'm sure she is a good choice but she is not the only Shepard to consider," Udina pointed out. "One Captain John Shepard, your current XO is another consideration. He was the brains behind Elysium's defense, and he led the victory on Torfan by destroying the pirate organization once and for all."

"It may be true he is a brilliant strategist. But he's also very ruthless and is less willing to work with the Council Races than Jane is," Anderson pointed out before he smiled. "Though he would make a good liaison for Jane and it is time for him to have his own command as Eliza and I did plan to transfer over to _CSS Waterloo_."

Udina looked unsure before adding, "I can't question your logic or Jane's courage."

"The Confederation Alliance of Worlds needs a hero and Jane is the best we got," Anderson said with conviction.

Udina sighed while he looked at his fellow ambassador, "We'll make the call."

Hackett nodded as he typed in the coordinates, "Anderson, I want you to meet with the SPECTRE at these coordinates in a nearby cluster outside restricted Confederation space. You can get there without hitting a Mass Relay, and due to the secrecy of the mission, I request you do so."

"Yes Admiral, we'll take care of it," the Ambassadors and Anderson nodded in agreement.

"Well, I will get everything ready on Eden Prime," Wrex smiled in amusement. "The sooner we get the artifact off world, the sooner we can have the Unification Celebrations, Supreme Commander Urdnot Wrex out."

The others followed suit, leaving Anderson alone in the Quantum Entanglement Communication (QEC) room before he walked out into the war room. In the room stood a species known as qunari, a species that resembled a barrel-chested human, except that females had curly horns on their head and were a bit taller than the average human female with very pale skin that seemed to glow an ivory color. This female qunari in particular had purple eyes that were observing communication as she pushed back her long, died brown hair before she turned towards her superior officer.

"Operations Chief Sarah Sinclair, when the mission is done on Asteroid X57, I want you to call Jane and John back on the _Normandy_. Tell them to report back on this ship for their next assignment," Anderson stated.

"Yes sir," Sinclair immediately saluted as she went back to work as two holograms appeared in front of Anderson.

Both holograms resembled beautiful woman that looked real, yet at the same time synthetic. The one staring at him was purple woman with short hair and glowing reddish/purple eyes. She also wore a 'skimpy' military uniform version of shorts and vested uniform with Lieutenant 2nd Class sigma of most communication and navigation officers (a stripe with a triple dash stripe, both silver).

She smiled as she asked, "Hay-ya Admiral. What do you need us lonely ladies to do?"

Anderson smiled as he typed in the coordinates before he looked at the AI, "Cortona, I need to give these coordinates to Joker and tell him to set a course. I want to be there once our people return home."

"Aye, aye, boss man!"

Cortona smiled before she bleeped into another section of the ship leaving her fellow hologram to shake her head, "All the three years I have been observing and teaching that AI, I still have no idea where she gets her disrespect from."

The green hologram was different then her companion. She seemed strict in her military uniform and hair tied in a military type bun. Her blue eyes stared steadily ahead as she said, "I've heard the conversation you had with the Council."

"I figured as much," Anderson chuckled with a small smile. "You were never very good at keeping your holographic nose out of private meetings, Eliza."

"Oh please; you wanted me to listen otherwise you would have activated the internal with the external firewalls that can keep even the Salarian STG out," Lieutenant (two silver stripes) Eliza shrugged before she got serious. "I assume we will move to the _CSS Waterloo_ sooner than expected. You think John and Jane Shepard are ready?"

Anderson nodded as he spoke in a deep voice what he thought, "Yes, I think it's time to move on. John is ready to take command of his own ship, Jane is beginning to trust herself as a leader on the field and both of them had learned everything they can from me. It's time for the next generation to take over."

"Damn, you make it sound like we are old, and I'm an AI that can live up to two centuries before I die due to software degeneration," Eliza mussed. "Though I see your point as I am sure Cortona feels the same way."

"That she does," Anderson smiled as he looked at the hologram. "Okay, now get me the ground teams' status reports. I want to know how much I missed while in the conference call."

"At once, Admiral," Eliza nodded before pulling up reports faster than any human could possibly match. Anderson was quickly brought up to speed while he watched video feeds of the ground team's progress.

**Location: Exodus Cluster/Asgard System/Asteroid X-57 over Terra Nova/Outside Main Facility**

**Human Date: February 1, 2183**

On the airless surface of the asteroid, a large six-wheeled black and white vehicle was moving across the rocky field. The aeronautically slick, highly maneuverable, v-shaped vehicle avoided ruble and explosions, as it moved closer to its targets. Its thick armor was not even dented by the direct shot of a missile as its blue kinetic barrier shields flashed for a second as its large main cannon moved to open fire on the defenses put in by the batarian slavers. The batarian's small automated turrets and mines did not last long under the vehicle's cannons secondary fire of bullets with the occasional main cannon firing shells that exploded on impact, taking out its targets and anything nearby.

The last mine was destroyed when the tank drove over it, causing a minor hiccup to the occupants within the vehicle as the driver, a tall, female human laughed in excitement as she straightened the vehicle's course. She held on tightly with as much strength as her athletic body could muster behind her black, airtight armor. Her open white robes flapped over her armor that had the green mage class patches and stripes over her small chest and right arm.

The driver laughed as she turned her head across a neck colored with the red N7 logo to state to her gunner, "Looks like you missed one Kaidan. Good thing we were in the Mako instead of the Hammerhead, or they would be picking up our pieces."

The gunner, Lieutenant 1st Class Kaidan Alenko, a short human in black, dull airtight armor held onto his gun joystick snorted, "I'll be faster on the trigger next time Commander."

"Good, and Lieutenant, call me Jane or just Shepard. Commander makes me feel old," Commander Jane Shepard had ordered the older man in almost black armor that had no color except the blue stripe along the right arm to signify the biotic class and the small marking to signify his rank (two stripes, blue).

She could hear his smirk as he answered, "You got it Commander."

Jane grumbled as she slowed the tank down in front of the fortress, taking note of the larger, more powerful guns and defense systems. "Legion-VII, are Confederation's bases defenses still deactivated."

"Affirmative, Sheppard-Commander," answered a blue and silver geth with a white eye, and the markings of Lieutenant 2nd Class and a yellow stripe across its right arm for technician class. The geth spoke in clicks that were synthetic as it typed away at a computer, "The batarians have not been able to crack the Confederation's Codes, and we are keeping the systems offline."

"Good as I don't want to test the M-35B's legendary toughness at this time," grunted a wide, yet very strong krogan in black and reddish orange armor with an intimidating helmet that had a white krogan handprint over the facemask and a red stripe across his arm to signify a soldier class.

"I thought you loved explosions Trex," Kaidan joked from the gunner's seat as Trex sat behind Kaidan in a seat across Legion-VII.

"I like explosions when our enemies are the ones exploding," Trex grunted behind his helmet. "I can tell you from personal experience that it's not fun to be the one exploding. It's very painful."

"Well, looks like no one is going to explode today gentlemen we are here," Jane Shepard had stated as she drove up to the entrance. "Legion-VII, would you be so kind to unlock the door."

"I've been trying to Shepard-Commander," Legion-VII stated as his console lit up, exclaiming the door was jammed. "The batarians have obstructed the doors from opening."

"In other words, they're jammed them," Jane Shepard sighed as she turned the M-35B Mako to its side. "Trex, would you mind opening the doors the old fashion way."

Trex laughed as he took over the secondary firing control from the side of the Mako. At each side were plasma laser cannons shaped like orbs. The orbs began to glow before they unleashed a reddish-blue Confederation colored plasma beam cut through the gates like butter and left a half oval mark on the gates. It took a split second after the cut for the vacuum of space forced the metal to bend open like a door as a turret of air escaped, allowing the marines from within the Mako to enter.

"Alright everyone out," Jane stated as she got up before she grabbed one of her three folded weapons on her back and hip.

The weapon she picked was an M-15 Vindicator assault rifle, a fast pace assault rifle with standard attachments that enhance the weapons main features, add ammunition and standard melee weapons like bayonets or weapon stunners. Jane was the last to step out, locking the Mako as her four-man squad headed into the facility.

**Location: Exodus Cluster/Asgard System/Asteroid X-57 over Terra Nova/Main Facility**

**Human Date: February 1, 2183**

Deep within the facility, the batarians barricaded themselves in a large arboretum. It was a large domed room with red cherry trees and four levels filled with scientific equipment and living agreements. All of which were patrolled by the batarians, a four-eyed alien with an arachnid like boney face without fangs but still had a mouth filled with teeth. Teeth the two guards flashed as they carried military grade version of common weapons like the M-7 Lancers assault rifles and M-23 Katana shotguns. Weapons used to hold and guard over a dozen humans, two injured krogans and a single quarian locked behind a glass room.

"So, you hear the rumors that all of our units outside are dead?" demanded one batarian in a deep pitched voice common among batarians.

"It's just rumors started by the human upstarts to give hope to their pet brutes, suit rats and their AIs," the batarian snarled at a defiant, female human with short brown hair. "Just because they have introduced their fancy new technology to the galaxy, they think they can rule us all as they surrounded themselves with the outcasts of the galaxy."

"The only outcasts are you batarians," the woman with defiant blue eyes said back to the batarian. "And when your people die, no one will cry, but celebrate that the biggest blight outside of the darkspawn is dead."

"Shut up you bitch," the guard with the shotgun growled as he moved towards the door. "Maybe I should teach you to respect your superiors."

The batarian was about to force open the door when he was stopped by his fellow comrade, "I wouldn't do that if I were you. Balak wants to deal with the woman personally."

The batarian growled as he stepped back. He noticed the grin on the woman as he snarled, "Don't count yourself lucky woman. Once Balak get a hold of you, I will take great pleasure in hearing your antagonizing scream as he…"

The batarian never finished as his armored kinetic barrier broke along with his entire head after the distinct sound of a magnetic field weapon fired. The batarian's cold, red blood and brain matter splattered across the glass window as his headless body slumped to the ground, causing the civilians and the batarian to panic. The batarian turned around to see a blue and silver geth with its long Javelin sniper rifle. He watched the geth unload one of its used thermal clips, a replaceable heat sink used to keep the weapon itself from overheating, from the geth-style, heavy sniper rifle before it took aim again at the batarian with its thermal scope and heavy barrel.

The batarian only had time to scream, "Geth Sniper!" before he was blown away like his comrade.

The alarm was sound as the batarians ran for cover or prepared to attack, while Legion-VII methodically killed its third target and was about to move when a batarian engineer appeared to the legion's side with a glowing engineer drone/orb, intent on killing the geth. Only for the geth to flick on its omni-tool to use its sabotage hack ability to cause the batarian weapon and drone to explode, taking a large chunk out of its shields as the geth put up its Javelin sniper rifle and replacing it with a Geth Pulse Assault Rifle, program to fire cryo-rounds.

It then fired a large number of its frozen needle size bullets into the batarian to overwhelm what was left of its shields and armor before he fell to the ground dead as more batarians began to flood in. Legion-VII was forced to take cover as the batarians came into range and opened fire on the ledge it was sitting in. The batarians, determined to kill the geth failed to notice the grenades thrown in their direction. The grenades went off in a flaming inferno of phosphorus and polonium gas that killed four of the batarians and created confusion among the batarians, allowing Legion-VII to activate its cloak and disappear from the batarian's view.

With Legion-VII running to safety, Trex continued to create confusion with an M-37 Falcon cannon like rifle with a stability damper to steady his aim. He continued to fire off specialized, microfilament explosive rounds that detonated on contact with each batarian time after time. The explosions sent the batarians stumbling back or dying. His attack continued until he noticed movement coming up behind him.

At that moment, Trex quickly put up his M-37 Falcon and pulled out his revolving, thick N7 Piranha with an omni-blade instead of a bayonet to stab a batarian vanguard in the stomach. The blue, biotic field of a charge dissipated, along with his failed shield as Trex dug his large glowing blade in before pulling it out and discharged his shotgun three times onto the second batarian. The tightly knit, spread of shells destroyed the batarian's shields in the first two shots before shredding the armor by the third shot. Trex smiled behind his armor as Kaidan appeared on the battlefield with his helmet's facemask, and his whole armor covered in an omni-tool like armor known as tech-armor.

Kaidan's big chin and small lips looked serious as he took aim with his Y shape, heavy N7 Valkyrie assault rifle. His brown eyes appearing behind his helmet visor were filled with fire, as he opened fire on the batarians. The gun acted like a mini machine-gun as he took out four batarians before he burned out his entire thermal clip, forcing Kaidan to plop out the thermal clip and load in the next one to continue the battle. He continued taking batarians out at a slower pace, firing in bursts to keep the thermal clip from overheating while his armor absorbed every shot thrown his way. He continued to fire until a heavily armed batarian appeared rushing him.

Rather than going for the heavy, N7 Crusader shotgun on his back, Kaidan used his omni-tool to overload the enemy's shield. With the batarian's barrier down, he then summoned a blue, biotic field to fire off a biotic warp right into the batarian, shredding the slaver's armor and internal organs, as he fell to the ground dead. It was the start of the human's offensive as he sent a biotic push to fling two lightly defended batarian soldiers into the wall. Their necks snapped from several kilo-Newtons of force. Kaidan continued the offensive as he was joined by Trex's explosions and Legion-VII's sabotage of weapons after it reappeared to flank the enemy.

Something the commanding batarian slaver was not too happy about, as he tried to reorganize his men into a counter attack. He felt he was pushed back into a wall as he cursed, "A geth infiltrator, a human biotic trained to use technology of a sentinel and a krogan demolitionist. All we need to face is a quarian engineer, a marksman, another biotic or a mage, and we will be screwed."

"At least there are only three of…" a second batarian started to declare until a fireball hit the alien and sent him aflame.

Several batarians looked up to see a redheaded human with powerful green eyes behind a blue, clear visor with a right sided microphone on top of her shoulder length, messy hair. A frown was frozen on her heart shape face with freckles as she stared at the scared batarians before her. A face that people recognized as she and her brother were used by the First Battalion and the Confederation Alliance of Worlds' Navy recruitment posters.

To the hostages it was hope as some muttered the title she earned for saving the colony Elysium, "The Hero of the Skyllian Blitz."

While the batarians shook as they muttered a title she earned for killing a thresher maw on foot, "The Beast Queen of Akuze."

The leader knew her better as, "Commander Jane Shepard, psychic knight class mage."

That was all she needed before Jane took to the offensive as she jumped off the ledge and open fire with her M-15 Vindicator assault rifle, taking out two batarians before she hit ground level with short bursts of fire. She then hit the ground running as she summoned an ice spike and slammed it into the head of a batarian as she rushed towards the lead slaver. Another batarian tried to intercept her when Jane put up her assault rifle to pull out her short, light M-22 Eviscerator shotgun to hit the batarian at close range for maximum effect. She passed by the bloody batarian corpse as she put her shotgun up on her back.

Energy swirled around her hands as she headed to the batarian leader and his two guards. The batarians did not wait to open fire at the approaching mage as her golden, harden shielded took the bullets that her enhanced kinetic barriers shrugged off. Her shields outlasted her opponents as she came up close to drench her opponents in water with her right hand before she followed up with a wave of lightening. Her opponents' kinetic barriers and two of the three batarians quickly fell while the slavers leader's heavy armor absorbed the electrical strikek.

The surviving batarian growled as he summoned an omni-blade to attack the approaching mage as energy whirled around her. He was not prepared for Jane's wrist launcher as it sent out two tubes that folded out a monomolecular bladed tomahawk and short sword. With a quick strike, Jane's tomahawk caught the omni-blade and pushed it down to follow up with a sword strike across the batarian's face. The wound dug in deep into the man, making him yell as he tried a jab strike towards Jane's stomach.

Jane avoided the quick strike, parrying the move and was ready to kill him when she noticed movement at the corner of her eye. With quick precession, Jane broke through the batarian's attack, stuck her axe and sword into the man, and channel particle energy into the batarian. The batarian began to swell-up like a walking balloon before Jane flung the batarian into the approaching numbers behind her. The batarian exploded in blood, bones and guts, taking down a mass of men that tried to attack from behind her. Jane stared with satisfaction before she was forced to evade the enemy's gunfire.

A sniper shot along with assault riffles' bullets that squashed/shattered on impact, caused Jane's kinetic barrier to fall. Commander Jane Shepard was forced to jump off a rail to a lower ledge for cover. She hid behind the railing waiting for the VI (virtual intelligence) to tell her shields had recharge as she waited. While waiting, Jane looked over to see over a dozen batarians behind a cargo container with a batarian engineer, along with several robotic drone turrets. She was about to make a call when she noticed three batarians had snuck up on her, weapons pointed at her.

Jane was prepared to take a pounding when a biotic push from Kaidan sent the attackers into a metal wall with a satisfying crunch. Two of them died while the third was pulled in front of Kaidan armed with his N7 Crusader shotgun. The shotgun blasted the batarian's chest out while a set of explosions happened behind Jane. She looked up to see Trex fire eighteen small rockets from his ML-77 Rocket Launcher in a burst of six, taking out the batarians and their drones. Leaving only one batarian alive before he was incinerated alive by Legion-VII's plasma burst, omni-tool attack.

Jane felt safe to move out of her hidden location as the VI finally read her shields were restored. Jane was back in charge as they approached the hostages when a growl stopped them in their tracks. The four turned to see the growl came from the varren, fish like dogs with sharp teeth and whiskers originally from krogan homeworld, Tuchanka before the spread throughout the galaxy. These varren were trained war dogs that belonged to the batarians military standing alongside said personal. Personal in military grade black armor, equipped with exotic weapons that belong to the Batarian Hegemony alone. They were dealing with elite military personal of the Batarian Hegemony.

Jane and her comrades pulled out their pistols/SMG (submachine gun) and took aim as the batarian leader stepped up. The leader was a batarian with a green faceplate and yellow ridges along the sides of his head. Jane kept her hand steady with her silver M-77 Palladian heavy pistol as she turned to Legion-VII to ask, "Who are we dealing with?"

Legion-VII responded by lowering its short Geth Plasma SMG to pull his omni-tool to run facial software to give a report, "That unit is Captain Ka'hairal Balak, a batarian commando from the Special Intervention Black Ops of the Batarian Hegemony. Confederation Intelligence Services flags the man as an extremist and to approach with extreme caution. Standing orders are to shoot the unit on sight."

"Well I'm glad to hear that for I really want to shoot him," Trex stated as he aimed with his krogan made heavy pistol the Punisher. "I'll suggest we kill him now and be done with it."

"Agreed Commander," Kaidan nodded with bulky, rapid-fire N7 Eagle heavy pistol.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," Balak stated as he held up a detonator, causing the group to tense. Jane looked around to see three long cylinder devices with one near the hostages, while the other two were above and below them. Each packed with enough explosives to insure that if one goes off, they all went off.

Balak smiled as he saw Jane's frown, "You humans are predictable. Now I'm leaving this asteroid. If you try to stop me, I'll detonate these charges. And your helper and all of her friends are all going to die."

"Why are you doing this?" Jane growled at Balak, who growled back an answer.

"Don't pretend you don't know, human! For it is retaliation against your kind and the galactic outcasts that follow your kind in taking what belongs to the batarians after you forced us into exile!" Jane's mouth was wide open while Balak continued his rant, "Your kind forced your way into the Attican Traverse and we could do nothing, knowing that your kind alone was stronger than us and together with the other rejects could obliterate us. You knew it, we knew it, the Council knew. So my people did what had to be done.

"And what did that get us? We were forced into exile. Forced to survive on what we can scrounge up. It's been like that for decades. All the while the Confederation Alliance of Worlds gained power as my people are forced to suffer as you pushed my people into the background and a deep depression."

"And now you're taking out your anger on these people," Kaidan exclaimed in a soft tone that carried across the room. "They've done nothing to you or the Batarian Hegemony. What could they have done to warrant such an attack?"

"Besides using resources that could have been ours and colonizing a planet that should have been ours," Balak accused as he glared at the group. "These people are far from innocent and they will be used to make a statement."

"A statement that says you all were stupid," Jane snapped at the batarian. "I don't know what they teach to you batarians, but I will not stand you spewing lies to suit your version of history instead of the truth."

"How dare you," Balak stammered while Jane went on the attack.

"How dare you pretend your people are innocent when it's so far from the truth!" Jane huffed as she spoke, "The Batarian Hegemony used the Attican Traverse and to a small extent, the independent Terminus Systems to run pirate and slaving rings for your economy for centuries. All the while claiming an interest but never colonizing or claiming those worlds so you would not be officially tied to the slaving and pirate attacks that your people funded.

"That was until the Confederation Alliance of Worlds came around and started to colonize free zones of the Attican Traverse for my people and the krogans, under the Council's approval and you didn't care. You didn't care, until we discovered that the Traverse was a rich area of space and you had no idea. Therefore, you bitched and moan about losing such territory and tried to kick us out with funded pirate and slaver attacks. Only to fail as we fought back and began draining your backers' money. So you went to the Council to try to stop us, and when that didn't work you threw a fit and left the Council. You then threw everything you had, including your own military until you pushed your economy into ruin and drove yourself into exile."

Jane sighed as she added, "You have no one to blame but yourself for what happened."

"Not to mention if there is such a thing as an exile species, it's your kind for being known as the scum of the galaxy," Trex added with amusement as Kaidan looked at Balak, hopping that did not set him off.

"Bah-ah-ah-ah… you know nothing but lies and I'm done listening to you!" Balak responded in cold anger. "Now I'll suggest you let us go or the hostages will die."

Jane stared before she lowered her gun followed by the others, with Trex being very reluctant. "I won't stop you, but I'll promise that your end will be soon."

"Perhaps, but it won't be you because those charges are on a timer," Balak stated before he and his men backed away. "I'll suggest you get to work," Balak added before he disappeared, leaving a tensed four man squad.

Jane seeing the danger quickly barked out orders, "Legion-VII, Kaidan, disarm the demolition charge above the hostages while Trex and I handle the demolition charge below the hostages. Will both work our way up to the middle demolition charge. Everyone go!"

The two teams quickly rushed to the demolition charges with their weapons out. Trex was the first to reach the charge and he quickly got to work on disarming the bomb while the detonator was pulsing. Jane stood guard with her M-15 Vindicator as Legion-VII and Kaidan climbed up to the bomb on the top floor. As Trex worked to disarm the bomb, Legion-VII kept Jane informed as it climbed to the third bomb through their omni-tool communicator.

"_Shepard-Commander. We were able to hack the communication's wireless to determine that we have four minutes and thirty-five seconds to disarm the demolition charge or the hostages will die. I'm sending you a timer to your hub_."

"Thanks Legion-VII," Jane stated as a timer flashed through her visor. "Have you reached the bomb yet?"

"_We've reached the bomb_," Kaidan reported from comm. "_Legion-VII is working to disarm it while I stand guard_."

Jane hummed in agreement, as Jane turned to Trex as he worked his omni-tool, "How close are you in disarming the bomb?"

"I'm overriding the computers defenses, I will soon hack its circuits and the bomb will no longer be a threat," Trex reported as worked in crossing its circuits.

He almost lost his concentration when his shields flare from an attack of two drones rolling down to greet them. Jane responded with lightening bold and a bolt of pure energy into the two drones, destroying them in one shot. Jane grumbled, "Cheap batarian junk," before she turned to see that batarians left additional parting gifts. "Looks like there not bringing their varren home," Jane mumbled as she watched two varrens come rushing towards her.

Jane responded with her telekinesis to slam the two varrens together with enough force to knock them down. The two fish dogs tried to shake it off but Jane with her M-15 Vindicator opened fire, killing the two war beasts. Jane smiled at the beasts going down when she noticed that while Trex destroyed most of the drones the batarians brought, there were still enough to be a threat when combined with the number of varren war dogs the batarians brought.

"How much longer Trex?" Jane asked as she opened fire onto the approaching machines.

"Done," Trex grunted as the krogan pulled out his Executioner Pistol and fired, destroying a drone in one shot at the cost of the weapon's thermal clip.

Trex smiled as he switched with his M-37 Falcon and opened fire with limited success as the drones began to spread out. Jane realized their tactics when Kaidan reported through the radio, "_Commander, we have disarmed the bomb but were being pinned down by enemy drones._"

"There trying to pin us down as well to prevent us from getting to all three bombs, well I'm not about to let Balak kill these people" Jane growled.

"We'll still have time once we deal with these pests," Trex stated as he fired of mine onto the ground with his omni-tool.

The mine soon exploded, taking out two varren while Jane looked over, "But that would be cutting it close and I don't like leaving it that close." Jane then put up her assault rifle as air swirled around her. "I'm going to take a more direct approach. Trex, cover me and all of you try to get to me as soon as you can," Jane ordered, and her men acknowledge her orders.

Trex was laying down cover fire as Jane summoned a storm of air in her fingertips just before she shot off the ground onto the balcony that held the hostages and the second demolition charge. With a quick tap of her omni-tool, Jane began to hack into the demolition charge, keeping an eye at the time, indicating she had over three minutes to work. As she worked to cross circuits, she heard movement to her right to see a varren had slip passed Trex. The dogfish began to rush Jane, intent on feasting on the human when Jane pulled out her M-77 Paladin and opened fire.

The pistol, while being weaker than the Trex's Executioner was still more powerful per-bullet then her assault rifle. Therefore, the one shot destroyed the entire front of the varren's head as blood gushed out and spread across the floor as it fell to the ground. Jane ignored the dead varren in favor of putting up her gun to continue her work. She was so close she could she could feel it as she manipulated the circuitry until finally she got the combination and the demolition charge was deactivated.

Jane breathed a sigh of relief until a varren appeared and jumped her. Her kinetic barrier flashed under a registered melee attack as the two fell to the ground. Jane began to fight the varren off when she saw a second at the corner of her eye, approaching like a pack of wolves working together to take down a stronger target. Jane became tensed as the varren moved to attack when an electrically charged omni-blade went through the varren, killing it.

Jane never felt so happy when Legion-VII's cloak dispersed to reveal the cavalry had arrived. The varren on top of her found out the hard way when it was dispatched by Kaidan's biotic push as it flew right into Trex's axe. It was dead with a single strike as the krogan cleaved the beast in two. With the beast dead, Jane pushed herself off the ground as she examined the field to see that the battle was officially over.

"That's it, we're done," Jane commented as Trex pressed a button to cause his helmet to unfold into his armor to show off his grin on his burnt face, along with a three point, green skull.

Trex was glad to be rid of the helmet as he brown eyes looked for contacts with his comrades as he grinned, "Ah, and I was looking forward to even more explositions. Oh well, there is always the next time."

"Glad you're looking at the upside Trex," Jane smiled before she turned to Kaidan to give out a few orders. "Kaidan, let's get the hostages out."

"You've got it Commander," Kaidan acknowledge as his helmet unfolded off his slick, combed black hair and creased forehead.

With a tap of his omni-tool, the door unlocked within the building and the dozen of hostages coming out, giving their thanks as Jane's team helped them out. All except a brown-headed woman who had the nametag that read '_Kate Bowman_.' Jane knew something was off as she approached in tears, "I can't believe you let Balak go, to save us. I had expected you to let us die. To sacrifice the few for the many, just as I had when…"

"When you wouldn't give us up for the man Balak held at hostage," Jane stated.

"Yes…" Kate Bowman cried. "My brother was so stubborn. Always doing what was right, and now you let his killer go to save us."

"If I did that, then I would be no better than the batarians," Jane told the young woman. "Besides, Balak is not going to get far. Knowing my brother, Balak is not going to leave this rock alive if he has anything to say about it."

**Location: Exodus Cluster/Asgard System/Asteroid X-57 over Terra Nova/HMS Soulless**

**Time: February 1, 2183**

Far away from the main facility, Balak and his surviving crew drove up to a triangle and oval shape ship, the _HMS Soulless_. A batarian corvette that serves as a long-range carrier that had snuck passed the CRF. Balak was smug as he walked down the halls while his men strapped into their seats. He was heading to the cockpit to tell the pilot to lift-off. He failed to notice the small amount of blood on the floor as he entered the cockpit.

"Okay, it's time to get out of this ape infested…" Balak started as the pilot quickly turned to face him and stick a common, semi-automatic human riffle, the M-96 Mattock in his face.

A common riffle held by a not so common human as it was a tall, muscular human in a black, heavy armor with blue stripes along the chest and right arm. A human he recognized with his unshaven face, strong chin and cheekbones, and the large forehead that made him tremble. Especially the human's eyes, his blue, cold steely eyes behind the glowing orange visor. The last sight he ever saw as the human opened fire at a range that bypassed his shields.

Balak fell to the ground, dead as all four eyes had received through and through holes from the powerful, semi-automatic rifle with polonium rounds. That was the only warning Balak's men had when vines shot out from their seats and wrapped around the batarians. They were frantic as an elf in green armor with a cape that had a mask made out of roots stood before them. They stared at the short, dirty blonde-haired person, whose hair was tied in a court style that was completed with a tattoo and green visor over her round, thin face that had a frown on it.

They were scared, as she did not have her bladed staff or the multi-shot, highly accurate N7 Valiant sniper rifle, but rather a bulky, rapid fire N7 Eagle with the power amplifier that amplify biotic and mage powers. However, they were not as afraid of the female elf that held them in place as they were of the male human who walked in, wielding N7 Eagle and M-12 Locust, a slick submachine gun that is accurate and powerful weapon, both of which were equipped with a power amplifier.

A few mumbled, "The Shadow's Strategist," for his planning that saved the Elysium colony during the Skyllian.

Though the majority of batarians had mumbled in fear, "The Butcher of Torfan," due to horror stories of the human that slaughtered everyone at Torfan.

The Butcher of Torfan did not pay attention as he turned to face the female elf, "Good job, Lieutenant Commander Velanna O'Connell. Looks like we got some batarian soldiers to deliver to the CID, they'll be pleased."

"Thank you sir," Velanna saluted as her superior turned to the captured batarians.

"Now then, I'm Captain John Shepard if you don't know. I doubt you know my real name since I'm used by the Batarian Hegemony to be your bogyman," John stated before he waved his dual weapons at the batarians. "Regardless, you should know I'm a ruthless renegade within the famous First Battalion. So you should consider telling me if there are anymore batarians on this rock before I turn you over to the authority, or I start shooting some of you at random and leaving the rest of you for the authorities."

The batarians, usually strong willed where not properly trained to deal with emotionally draining spells in the entropy that Velanna was only willing to try out with glee. It would not be long before the youngest of the batarian elite soldiers broke, "We're all that's left and we would have died as well if Balak did not have hostages."

"My sister let you go?" John asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes…" the batarian nervously answered the Captain.

John responded with a sigh as he put up his guns, "Looks like I'm going to have a talk with Commander Jane Shepard. Not that will matter to you, as the authorities will be here soon, so, goodbye."

John then got up, ready to leave when a batarian called, "You've think this is the end, but it is not. You may have stopped the will of the Batarian People, but there others that will insure you upstarts will get what you deserve."

"So you did have help," John stated with a curious expression.

"It was a very powerful individual with influence across the galaxy who agrees your kind is too powerful for their own good," the batarian smirked as John raised an eyebrow.

"I don't suppose you would tell me who?" John asked Silence was John's answer as he shrugged his shoulders, "I guess it doesn't matter. I'm sure the CID will get it out of you soon. Velanna, I believe this is the time for them to sleep."

Velanna grinned as she worked her powers to force the batarians to sleep. Within moments, all of their heads slumped before she even uttered the word, "Sleep."

With the batarians down, Velanna moved to John's side as the boxy Kodak Type B shuttlecraft appeared outside of the vehicle, as its thruster lowering it down from the four at the bottom, two flexible armed thrusters in front and two in back. Velanna turned to see the holographic screen in front of her superior communicate with the pilot, a purple and white geth with a single large white eye and four smaller ones around it.

"Well meet you outside and rendezvous with our sister Ensign Aviation-1971," John ordered and the geth nodded in response.

"Acknowledge," the geth had responded as communication was cut while John put on his helmet.

"Come on, we've got a stupid sister to collect," John ordered as Velanna nodded her head.

"Yes sir," Velanna stated, though John did not seem to acknowledge as the two left the craft towards the shuttlecraft as a small fleet of Confederation personal and ships went to take the batarians into custody. The two would leave the batarians to their fate as John headed to confront his sister.

**Location: Exodus Cluster/Asgard System/Asteroid X-57 over Terra Nova/Main Facility**

**Human Date: February 1, 2183**

Within the Main Facility, Jane Shepard was giving Kate Bowman some good news about Balak she received through wireless transmissions. Kate Bowman cried in relief as justice for her and her fellow colonist memories were realized. Jane was in a good spirits when she felt a tap on the back of her armor. She turned to see it was John was right behind her.

"Ah, we were just talking about you being the hero of the day," Jane smiled before she turned to woman sitting with her. "This is my brother I was talking about, the one that took care of Balak."

Kate Bowman got up to thank the man who killed her torturer, "Thank you captain, for making sure a monster like Balak will never harm anyone else."

"A pleasure I'm sure," John stated as he quickly brushed the woman aside to address his true target. "Commander Shepard, can you come with me. We have much to discuss."

Jane reluctantly nodded to follow her brother to a secluded place, already having a feeling what's it's going to be about. John did not waste a second to tear his sister a new one, "What were you thinking Commander Jane Shepard!? Letting Balak go! He could have escaped if I wasn't at his ship!"

"I knew you were looking for the batarians ships to make sure he wouldn't leave, so I let him go to save the hostages," Jane told him, as he looked somewhat happy about the answer until Jane opened her mouth. "Though if you weren't here, I would still let him go."

"Why?" John bluntly asked his subordinate. "Why would you risk the chance of Balak escaping to cause more pain in the future?"

"Because it's like I told Kate Bowman. If I let those people die, I would be no better than the batarians," Jane smiled her small, innocent smile that made John shake his head.

John sighed as he stated, "You know I can't always be there to clean up your messes."

"Maybe so," Jane admitted, "but at least I'll sleep at night knowing I did everything I could to save these people rather than allow them to die for what would be considered to be the easy path. Something Velanna and Sarah can relate for if wasn't for our grandmother's sacrifice, they wouldn't be here."

"Yes, and it only cost a large portion of Alice McCoy's unit," John stated just before his omni-tool communication beep. "Let's see how long your naivety will last when you have your own command," John added before he activated his communication. "This is Captain John Shepard speaking."

"_Captain, this is Specialist Sinclair relaying orders that you return to the ship immediately for our next assignment_."

"So soon? I wonder what it could be?" Jane asked for her brother.

"_We are going to rendezvous to a nearby cluster to pick up a Citadel Council's Citizen for a joint mission. Details will be done on more secure communication_," Sarah stated over the communicators.

"In other words, face to face," John had mumbled while Jane's hand wandered over his omni-tool.

"Okay Sarah, we'll be there. Jane signing out," Jane stated as she pressed a button that deactivated her brother's omni-tool. Alone, Jane turned to ask, "Well shall we go big brother."

John nodded in agreement, "Yes, I think we shall," just as he left the room, followed by his little sister.

**Location: Undisclosed**

**Human Date: February 3, 2183**

Within a dark ship that resembles a squid mixed with a crawfish's shell and legs stood two batarians with a dark structure that seemed alive despite the fact it was a machine. The ship was a living dark presence that seemed to want to swallow them whole just for being there. As if the ship was not enough to set them on edge, the two stood in front of a man covered in shadows, whose features were not human nor were they beast. The batarians shuddered as they approached the man to give their reports.

"As you may have heard, the attack on the human colony Terra Nova had failed," the batarian nervously swallowed. "The entire cluster is on a frenzy looking for all the ships involved and we lost a large portion of our black ops in the area. I think that our joint operation has failed."

The figure chuckled in a commanding tone as he stated, "Oh the operation did not fail. In fact, it went exactly as planned."

"What?" one of the batarians asked as the figure continued to chuckle.

"Quite frankly, you batarians are failures at just about everything, and I knew you would fail," the figure answered with a raised talon. "In fact I was counting on it to distract the entire defense force of the Exodus Cluster to look for your men to insure the next step of the operation would come into play."

"You used loyal men and woman of the Batarian Hegemony as bait!" exclaimed both batarians at the thin figure.

"Yes and now that I think about it. Your services are not longer required," the figure whistled out into the shadows to summon a horde of hideous creatures in dark organic armor with organic looking weapons.

Creatures one batarian recognized as she stammered, "Darkspawn."

"Yes the darkspawn, the very creatures that had invaded Earth through dilithium introduce rips that killed billions on humanity's homeworld. They will be the perfect weapon for what is to come. Something you two would be contributing to the wave of destruction against the whole galaxy," the figure stated that sent chills down their spines not as much as the figure's next set of orders.

"Send those two to the broodmothers! I wonder what batarian darkspawn looks like," the figure added as a fore thought as the two batarians were dragged down to the lower chambers kicking and screaming.

They were soon out of sight as a single grunt darkspawn set up. The corrupted human looking darkspawn with fanged lips spoke in grunts that the figure understood, "So the Confederation's Fleet is on rotation. Excellent, then move the fleets. Its time too attack now!"

The darkspawn nodded as they went to their posts to prepare for the attack that was to come as a large fleet of old ships covered in organic armor flew right behind the great squid to a giant Mass Relay. A relay with rings inside, an oval shaped end began to rapidly spin as blue lightening shot out to the ships to fling them across its two prongs into several hundred times the speed of light and into Faster Then Light travel (FTL). They were heading to their designation for their first in a long series of dangerous campaigns.

**Location: Exodus Cluster/Utopia System/Over Eden Prime/_CSS Kebel_**

**Human Date: February 3, 2183**

Over the lush, green world known as Eden Prime stood a heavily armed space station, defense satellites and a small fleet of eight ships, two Liberty class cruisers, one Genesis class heavy frigate, one Garden class heavy frigate, two Terra class frigates and two Zen class frigates. Of the frigates classes, the Genesis and Terra class frigates were human based delta shape starships with a long gun neck at the front, while the Garden and Zen class frigates were quarian base gunships with long bodies and a ring head. Both of which designs were added into the Liberty class cruisers, the bases of Confederation ships with its delta shape body with four engines at the, bulky round geth ship body, and long neck with a closed ring at the front.

Leading this small fleet was the _CSS Kebel_; a Liberty class cruiser commanded by a krogan named Captain Cruok, a bulky krogan was enjoyed a strong drink as his subordinate reported, "Sir nothing on scanners. It's very quiet as always."

"Of course it is, nothing ever exciting happens on this garden retiring world for non-combatants," the Captain groaned. "I would love to go after batarian scum that decided to attack us."

The bridge crew began to chuckle when a geth at communication began to pick up something wrong, "Cruok-Captain. Sensors at the relay report we have active transmits coming from the relay."

"Well, who is it?" the Captain asked.

"Unknown," the geth reported in its clicking, mechanical voice. "All communications are down and we are now being jammed."

Captain Cruok knew what he meant as he pressed the intercom to yell, "We're under attack, all ships battle stations!" The Captain then turned off the comm. to direct his forces. "Move our ships into battle positions and get the grid acti-"

"Captain-Cruok, ground teams report that there is a virus introduced into the systems, deactivating our space satellites and some of the ground emplacements. We've have limited planetary support," the geth reported to his commander. "The enemy must have hacked into the communication satellites at the relay to deliver the virus."

"Sir, several enemy units are going to be dropping out of FTL within a light second right about, now," one of Cruok's offers had reported.

The Captain watched slack-jawed, as dozens of older ships appeared on his screen that sensors profile as an old class of ships, mostly fighters and frigates made from parts taken from a dozen races with high amount of radiation seeping from the hull and organic armor. However, the Captain was more concerned about the largest ship he had ever seen. A ship that was over two kilometers long, and one their ship's sensors had no profile for the squid/crawfish like ship with a long gun. A gun he had a right to fear, as he watched the approaching invasion force.

"My god," one of the bridge crewmembers muttered as the Captain quickly collected his thoughts.

The Captain was quick to yell out, "Launch fighters and all ships get into medium range and open…" until the squid enemy ship opened fired with its eight tentacles, all of which turned out to be guns.

The weapons fired long beams of hot molten streams of slag that generated enough heat to simulate plasma as it's lashed out at the small Confederation Alliance fleet. Within seconds, all frigates were destroyed, followed by the heavy frigates ten seconds later. Only the cruisers survived the twenty seconds of barrage, though not without scars as a long gash marks along the ship's hull. The bridge looked like a warzone as the crew held onto their seats for dear life, even with the seat belts.

The Captain stared in shock as a crew read out the damage reports, "Shields are at sixty percent and hull breach along decks three through five. All gun placements on our dorsal side are damaged, with the exception of our PPC (Particle Plasma Cannons). We've have power fluctuations and casualty reports on all decks."

"Sir, enemy ships are entering medium range," a bridge crewmember reported.

"Then open fire with mass effect and PPC weapons, as well as prepare for ramming speed!" the Captain ordered as he coughed out blood. "If we're going to die, well take as many as we can."

The two cruisers quickly complied with the krogans orders as they fired at once with mass effect bullets from their surviving broad side cannons while the main Thanix cannon fired off disruptor torpedoes every five seconds, killing frigates in their third or fourth shot. The projectile weapons going a sixth the speed of light as they rammed into ships, causing damage by the wide spread of fire. A prolog to their death as the ships fired their reddish blue colored, duo particle plasma beams killing two cruisers while the mass accelerated weapons continued to fire.

Watching the sixth enemy frigate explode, the Captain was about to order ramming speed when a bridge crewmember yell out, "Captain, the enemy dreadnaught is turning towards and charging its main cannon. Oh god… it's about to fire."

Captain Cruok, seeing the enemy facing his two cruisers stood up to say, "It's was an honor serving with you all, and it was a good day to die."

The last words the bridge crew would ever hear as a powerful, long stream of molten slag shot out of the main gun with more power than any ship had ever seen in the Galaxy. The blast went right through the two Liberty Class cruisers with such intensity that it melted the ship's Solaris armor within seconds. The beam went through the ships just before the ship exploded into ribbons. The very air exploded, causing a chain reaction that went to every part exploding fuel, munitions and its elemental zero drive core. All that was left was rubble as the beam continued and hit the station. The station was saved by its thicker armor and kinetic barrier, but it was still knocked into a higher orbit and the hull was breached in the upper level.

Nothing stopped the invasion as the fleet headed to the planet as the organic ship led the charge as it was followed by an organic, long cylinder ship with organic parts in front of its beam weapon and large engine in its back. Eden Prime was going to be the beginning of a long war.

**Finally done with my longest chapter, I hope you enjoy and please review to give me your opinion. **

**Author's Note**

**A) Codexs is in a separate story for enjoyment. Please read it if you like the Mass Effect Codex for story changes and if you have already read it, please note I made a few edits and additions including a new class of mech, like the Atlas Mark II.**

**B) Okay here are how the Shepard's are different. Jane will be a fun loving, naive woman that is able to rally troops and acts like a paragon, while John is a brilliant tactician that is a cold calculating person that acts like a renegade. **

**1) Scenes will be replaced with locations and date since it feels more in tone with the story. I also plan to add time but I felt it would be too difficult to keep track.**

**2) For holograms, I went with the image hologram from Mass Effect 2 instead of the blue Star Wars one since it felt like a step backwards to go with the blue one. **

**3) Please note whenever I write, I do it with the assumption some of my viewers never played Mass Effect or Dragon Age, so I try to be descriptive, especially if they are not generic species like elves or dwarves. **

**4) I will introduce a few OCs to take in account the larger military while others like Ambassador Nakmor play a bigger role. **

**5) In this version, the Confederation is not keen on having humans in the SPECTREs since they would not gain much more influence with the Council unlike the Human System Alliance in Mass Effect. **

**6) Here is a fun fact about software that when you add, take away or run programs, they slowly degrade the software. So those people that think AIs are immortal, the answer is no for eventually new software will have to take place of the old, even if it's backup. **

**7) In cannon, they never said it in too many words, but it was indicated the batarians were not interested in colonizing or even mining the Attican Traverse. They were more interested in performing pirate and slaving attacks with possible deniability since it's a zone they are interested in but never colonized. They started to throw a hissing fit when the humans found the zone to be a resource rich territory. **

**8) I originally planned to have the M-44 Hammerhead in this story, but decided against it for it needs an atmosphere to fly, so I switched to a shuttlecraft. **

**9) The space battle was one sided I know, but I bet you didn't see the cruisers survive the Reaper's secondary guns. Well, in case your wonder, the reason they could take a hit due to stronger shields thanks to the ships running on more power and it having stronger armor. Though they will still be outclassed as two to three shots from secondary weapons or one shot from its Main Cannon could still destroy a cruiser,. **

**Characters Stats**

Name and Rank: Rear Admiral David Anderson (N7)

Species: human

Class: commando (soldier)

Special: pyro omni-tool attack

Melee Weapon: flaming omni-blade

Grenades: inferno grenades

Kinetic Weapons: M96 Mattock, M77-Paladin, N7 Valiant, &amp; ML-77 Missile Launcher

Ammo: inferno rounds

Next

Name and Rank: Captain John Shepard (N7)

Species: human

Class: sentinel (biotic)

Special: can do additional biotic slams attacks

Melee Weapon: dual omni-blades

Grenades: polonium grenades

Kinetic Weapons: M-96 Mattock (high-velocity barrel and thermal scope), N7 Eagle (power magnifier), &amp; M-12 Locust (power magnifier)

Ammo: polonium rounds

Next

Name and Rank: Commander Jane Shepard (N7)

Species: human

Class: balance psychic knight (mage)

Special: can do liquid (water) spells

Melee Weapon: monomolecular bladed short sword and tomahawk

Grenades: cryo grenades

Kinetic Weapons: M-15 Vindicator (stability damper), M-77 Paladin, &amp; M-22 Eviscerator

Ammo: particle plasma rounds

Next

Name and Rank: Lieutenant Commander Velanna O'Connell (N7)

Species: elf

Class: entropy magician (mage)

Special: power derives from a desire demon and can do plant spells

Melee Weapon: monomolecular bladed staff

Grenades: vine grenades

Kinetic Weapons: N7 Eagle (power amplifier) &amp; N7 Valliant

Ammo: energy leach rounds

Next

Name and Rank: Lieutenant 1st Class Kaidan Alenko (N6)

Species: human

Class: sentinel (biotic)

Melee Weapon: dual omni-blade

Grenades: lift grenades

Kinetic Weapons: N7 Valkyrie, N7 Eagle, &amp; N7 Crusader

Ammo: cryo rounds

Next

Name and Rank: Lieutenant 2nd Class Legion-VII (N5)

Species: geth

Class: infiltrator (tech)

Melee Weapon: electrical omni-gauntlet

Grenades: arc grenades

Kinetic Weapons: Geth Pulse Rifle (stability), Javelin (heavy barrel &amp; thermal scope), &amp; Geth Plasma SMG (heat sink upgrade)

Ammo: cryo rounds

Next

Name and Rank: Lieutenant 2nd Class Raik, Trex (N5)

Species: krogan

Class: demolitionist (soldier)

Melee Weapon: monomolecular bladed battle-axe

Grenades: inferno, polonium, &amp; sticky grenade

Kinetic Weapons: M-37 Falcon (stability damper) Executioner Pistol (heavy barrel), N7 Piranha (omni-blade), &amp; ML-77 Missile Launcher

Ammo: explosive rounds


	2. Chapter 2: Eden Prime Part 1

Mass Dragon Effect 1: Shadows of the Past

Chapter 2: Eden Prime Part 1

**I don't own Dragon Age or Mass Effect those are both properties of Bioware and I'm hoping that Dragon Age Inquisition is going to be good.**

**Beta Reader: Albert**

**Last Update: 10/1/2016**

**Location: Edge of Cluster 11533/Dark Space/CSS Normandy**

**Human Date: February 2, 2183**

Dark Space, a term used to describe the area of empty space between solar systems, nebulas and the like that hold almost no value, military or otherwise. In other words, zones prefect for secret mobile bases meant to be hidden or places to hold secret meetings. Meetings much like the one happening between two warships from two different organizations. The smaller warship was a Spirit class frigate from the Citadel Council, a long neck warship with two folding wings, each attached with two engines seen on human warships. The warship was designed with a combination of technology from both the Confederation and Citadel forces, though its outer design closely resembled human and turian ships.

It was also a design that carried through to the second-generation warship made by the Confederation Alliance of Worlds. The same ship that flew in from the Exodus Cluster, the _CSS Normandy_ was a Specter class heavy frigate that was the successor to the Spirit class frigate in every form. It was a more powerful warship with a longer neck, and a thicker/larger body, especially in the back end of ship as it had more of an oval shape than a narrow end. A warship that dwarfed the Spirit class it was meeting as the two meet under long docking arms attached to the _CSS Normandy_ and the Council Ship _Spectral_.

Outside the airlock, Rear Admiral Anderson, Captain John Shepard and Commander Jane Shepard were waiting patiently for their guest. John stood straight and was very stiff in his black dress uniform, while Jane was more informal. So informal that it made her brother stare at her as she wore a vest with shoulder pads underneath her open, black uniform. John was not amused.

"Sister, button up your uniform," John ordered.

"Why? I'm not the XO of this ship. I don't even know why I'm here," Jane said with a frown.

"You're needed because I requested it, so please Jane, try to look professional, for me," Anderson pleaded in a warm grandfatherly smile.

Jane could not fight against such a smile and sighed in defeat as she buttoned up her uniform. "Alright I'll do it. But if I have to look professional the whole time, I'll scream."

"Don't worry, you'll be back in your armor soon enough," Anderson smiled.

"Part of this mission you're not at liberty to tell us, sir?" John asked his commander.

"Not at the moment, as this came from my superiors as a need to know, but I'll promise you'll find out soon," Anderson stated with a small smile.

"Can we at least tell us who we are greeting?" Jane asked.

"Of course, we are greeting a SPECTRE from the Council," Anderson stated with a small smirk.

He was thinking he still got it as his two officers looked slack jawed as they yelled, "What?!"

Before they could question him further, they were forced to stand in attention as the doors opened to reveal a turian SPECTRE standing in front of them. Turians are a species that resembles a cross between birds and raptors with their tough, scaly skin around their harden head, with a flat nose and mouth instead of a beak. Their mouths had sharp teeth hidden under a flexible mandible that was on each side of the turians dark brown skin, which was covered by ceremonial paint, white in this case. This particular turian was male with spines at the back of the head and green eyes that scanned the room until he stared at the three humans. He then smiled, flexing his mandibles to show off his sharp teeth as he walked over to them.

The human looked up as the turian slightly tower over the tall humans as he held up his right hand while the other held a military bag over his left shoulder. "SPECTRE Nihlus Kryik, it's a pleasure to see you again."

Anderson took his hand and the humans five fingers wrapped around the turian's three, long fingers, "The pleasure is mine. Welcome aboard the _CSS Normandy_, these are my field officers, Captain John Shepard and Commander Jane Shepard."

"So these are the legendary heroes of Elysium, most impressive, I've been following your careers since," Nihlus smiled as he turned to Jane. "You've been of great interest in particular, Commander Jane Shepard. It's a very special person to rally the populous against an attack. It is also amazing that not only you survived the attack on Akuze, but you were also able to kill a Thresher Maw on foot."

"I wouldn't have been able to do it without my team, sir," Jane stated with a small blush on her lips.

Nihlus smiled as he looked at Anderson, "Humble too. I see you chose wisely."

"Perhaps, though she can be a pain in a butt when it comes to authority," Anderson joked while Jane pouted.

"Oh I feel so insulted," Jane stated as she shook her head.

"This is what you get for not acting professionally, Commander," John stated as Nihlus turned his attention to him.

"Ah, Captain John Shepard, I can see your reputation is well deserved," Nihlus stated as he stared with the turian's equivalent of a raised eyebrow.

"And what kind of reputation is that?" John asked.

"You have a very brutal reputation that matches the title the batarians gave you, the Bucher of Torfan," Nihlus stated with a blank stare.

"And that has you concerned?" John asked with a raised eyebrow. "Surprising considering that the SPECTREs has the freedom to do whatever they want as long it's not treasonous against the Council."

"Just because the law does not interfere with our job, doesn't mean some of us have no honor," Nihlus stated with an anger that forced John to back off.

"I'd apologized for insinuating you have no honor," John stated with a neutral tone.

"Well, I think we've talked enough, Nihlus if you follow me, I will show you to your quarters," Anderson stated toward the turian.

"Thank you admiral, I'll think I'll drop off my equipment," Nihlus smiled before he turned to the two younger humans. "It was a pleasure meeting you Captain, Commander."

The two officers bowed in response as Anderson looked to the cockpit to yell out, "Joker, Cortona and Eliza have the coordinates to our next destination, set a course immediately."

The pilot, an unshaven Lieutenant in a vested uniform with purple stripes and ball cap turned to the purple and green holographic woman that smiled at the pilot. Just before they gave him a holographic screen of numbers, Lieutenant 2nd Class Jeff "Joker" Moreau's green eyes scanned the coordinates before he turned to ask, "Commander these coordinates take us back to the Exodus Cluster towards Eden Prime. Are these accurate?"

"They are Joker," Anderson answered before he asked his own question. "Is that a problem?"

"No sir, but I was wondering if we may take this cluster's Secondary Relay back to the Exodus Cluster rather than the long way," Joker told Anderson back. "It should cut our time by quite a few hours and lower our collective boredom."

"Confirmed mon-capitan, it would turn a ten hour trip to a four hour one taking this path," Cortona confirmed.

"Fine, then use the relay, but only to the edge of the solar system. Far enough to allow us to fly in with our stealth system if need be," Anderson ordered as the pilot smirked.

"Aye, aye Admiral," Joker smirked as he moved away from the small frigate before entering FTL towards the nearby system while John and Jane stare at their commander.

"Were heading to the peaceful garden world Eden Prime? Why?" Jane asked with John nearby also curious about it.

"I'll explained later during a debriefing as we get closer to Eden Prime, I'm sorry I can't tell you more but all I can say is it's a black opt mission deemed need to know," Anderson stated with explanation. "You'll understand once it's time to reveal it."

John sighed as he stated, "We'll trust your judgment sir. You have not let us down so far sir."

Anderson nodded as he led Nihlus through Combat Information Center (CIC). A room filled with crewmembers sitting down or standing over holographic control panels. They were deep at work peering into holographic images of the ship in front of a galaxy map. A map the commander would use to navigate on top of a platform that was over the crewmembers, rather than the center like most Confederation ships. The crewmembers watched in silence as the Admiral and SPECTRE reached the elevator and waited for the doors to close before beginning to talk among themselves. Mostly the humans talked as the geth concentrated on their tasks while the few krogans stood guard with their fellow human soldiers.

Among them was John and Jane as they walked into the CIC, "Well that was interesting; I wonder what our mission is going to be?"

"I don't know little sis, I have a feeling it's going to be bad," John stated.

"You're telling me Captain," stated a bold man with white hair under his chin, lip and sideburns. "I don't think it's wise to have a SPECTRE onboard, especially a turian."

"Is that a bit a racism I hear in your voice, Pressly?" Jane asked without a hint of amusement.

"No ma'am," the uniformed Lieutenant Commander quickly replied, as his silver bands seem to glow in embarrassment. "I just have a family history of problems with them. My granddad and father fought in the Human Turian War, lost some friends during the turian invasion, and even more died when the Council refused to help Earth during the Darkspawn War."

"That was over thirty to forty years ago. You can't blame Nihlus for those events," Jane pointed out.

"I guess not, though I wouldn't trust a SPECTRE, especially a turian," Pressly added in his thick, American Western accent. "Were part of the Confederation Navy and answer to the Confederation Alliance of Worlds, but Nihlus does not answer to our superiors. In fact, as long as he completes the mission, he doesn't even answer to his Citadel Council and that is dangerous. I just hope Anderson knows what he is doing."

"You don't think Anderson is up to the task?" John asked.

"Oh I know he is," Pressly nodded. "A veteran from every conflict from the Darkspawn War and up, he is one of the most decorated Special Forces there is. If he milted all his medals down, he could make a life-size statue of himself at least. I can trust him to keep one turian in line."

"That's good to hear, I would hate to tell the boss you don't trust him on the mission," Eliza stated as she popped up behind Pressly.

The man almost jumped out of his skin in shock while Jane smiled broadly at Eliza, "Nice one, Eliza! Though I hope you don't plan to do anymore sneaking up on our old navigational officer. It wouldn't do Pressly any good if you gave him a heart attack."

John just shook his head as he looked at Eliza, "Where is Cortona?"

"She's at the cockpit, talking with Joker. I now know where she gets her disruptive manners," Eliza stated with a bit of distain on the AI's face.

"I feel sorry for Kaidan then," Jane stated with a bit of a giggle. "He's at the bridge acting as the operational officer."

John bit his lip to prevent a rebuke before he turned to Eliza to ask, "So Lieutenant, are you willing to tell us anything about our mission?"

"Um… nothing except don't expect much fighting as our mission will be a pickup. Soooooo, nothing to worry about," Eliza quickly added.

"That's not good to hear," stated a British accented woman with silver hair in a medical/scientific version of a military suit. "Action usually means I'm patching up soldiers in the infirmary."

"Don't worry doc, I promise not to be in the infirmary anytime soon," Jane jokingly added, much to the mirth of the woman as she tried to hide the smirk on her smooth chubby cheek and long chin.

Although she did not bother to hide her glare with her steely green eyes, "I hope so as I am tired of treating you, your brother and all the soldiers under both of you from every hard mission you go on."

Sinclair at her own station rolled her eyes before she turned to see three more personal coming up. They were Lieutenant 2nd Legion-VII, Trex in full body armor and Lieutenant Commander Velanna O'Connell in full uniform, gloves and ball cap that hid most of her features. Velanna looked shyly, trying to hide her bodily features as she walked over to one of the few people she trusted, Captain John Shepard.

"Sir, why is there a turian SPECTRE on this ship?" Velanna asked.

"Apparently were doing a joint mission on Eden Prime," John told Velanna.

"So nothing dangerous, huh?" Trex asked with a pout.

"I doubt it, as nothing volatile happens on the peaceful joint farming world known as Eden Prime," John stated, not knowing how wrong his words are.

**Location: Exodus Cluster/Asgard System/Eden Prime/Communication Relay**

**Human Date: February 3, 2183**

On the surface of Eden Prime, chaos descended as men, women and machine lay down their lives defending the planet from a violent invasion. The cities were protected by shield generators while those outside of these cities were evacuated to shelters as soldiers fought in the burning fields around them. In one particular location, a platoon was protecting a communication relay with their lives. Over eighty soldiers in camouflage armor fought with ferocity, as they were led by a black haired, tanned beauty that was rallying her troops. Her ponytail did not even move as she fired from her long, powerful, Black Widow Sniper Rifle with standard modifications at a far away target.

Her brown eyes was filled with determination as her glossed, pink lips formed into a smirk as she yelled, "Hold the lines as long as you can! We need to call for reinforcements or we will be over-run planet wide!"

"I am trying to break through the interface Ash, but its going to take time," the soldier at the console reported.

"Well keep at it, our other communication towers and the QEC when those monsters had them destroyed when they destroyed our Command Center and crippled the Space Station before we could call for help. We will have to make do with what we have," Lieutenant 1st Class Ashley 'Ash' Williams stated as she took another shot.

"Lieutenant Williams, a large number of enemy units are charging at us," reported a krogan to Lieutenant Williams as he pointed off in the distance.

"Shit, get ready and hold the lines!" Ashley Williams ordered as she pulled out her M-96 Matlock and opened with her semi-automatic rifle.

"Lieutenant, I've broken though the interference, I'm sending the message now," stated the soldier at the communication antenna.

"Then send it in a loop and pray someone gets its!" Ashley Williams ordered as she fought alongside her soldiers, saying a silent pray. "Please oh merciful lord, hear my pray and deliver me and my men to safety… Amen."

**Location: (Cluster 11533/System 11533-1/Relay to Exodus Cluster/Asgard System)/CSS Normandy: Deck 1**

**Human Date: February 3, 2183**

Within a small red star system, the _CSS Normandy_ was heading full speed to a Secondary Mass Relay. Smaller than a Primary Relay, Secondary Relays are specialized Relays that can be used to go any direction or connect to a Primary Relay with a limited range of a hundred-light-years. As opposed to being only able to go from Point A to Point B that can transition over tens of thousands of light years in one go, and they can transport even further when connected to a series of activated Mass Relays. Joker was counting down to the short jumps as the _CSS Normandy_ made its approach towards the Secondary Relay.

The ship's engines closed into the wing just before the _CSS Normandy_ hit the relay. A blue light attached to the ship before it was launched into a nearby cluster above performance as Joker reported, "Thruster… check. Navigation… check. Internal emission sink engaged. All systems are online. Drift… just under three hundred K."

"Three hundred K is good, Admiral Anderson will be pleased," Nihlus stated as he walked away, passing Jane and John Shepard.

Joker waited until the footsteps were far enough to grumble out loud, "I hate that guy."

"Nihlus gave you a complement, so you hate him," Kadan stated in a deadpan tone.

"You remember to zip up your jumpsuit on your way out of the bathroom, that's good. I just hit a target zone the equivalent size of a pin head with the equivalent of a pea shooter, so that's incredible," Joker snubbed Kaidan.

"Actually amazing would be a better term since the average ship suffers a drift of six hundred kilometers using a secondary relay at a short distance while Primary Mass Relays have a standard drift of three thousand kilometers," Cortona pointed out.

"Exactly my point," Joker exclaimed with a broad smile. "And also my second point is that SPECTREs can't be trusted. Call me paranoid."

"I'll have to agree with Joker," Jane nodded along with Joker comment. "This is the fourth time I ran into him in four hours and it always feel like he is observing me. It's kind of creepy."

"Seeing things that aren't there little sis?" John asked with a raised suggestive eyebrow. "Maybe you have a crush on him?"

"No brother, the only people I've been attracted to are human males and… um… maybe once with a therapeutic asari… Joker, snap out of it!" Jane yelled at the pilot as he developed a dreamy look while Cortona laughed.

Embarrassed, Jane sulked until John gave a small snort. Feeling the need to get back at her brother, Jane attacked the man with her own fact, "Anyway, outside of that one case among dozens, I have never been attracted to an alien. Unlike a certain Captain with a certain Lieutenant Commander," Jane pointed out, forcing John to blink as Jane moved the conversation on. "Besides, even if I was attracted to an alien, I'm not one for the completely by the book like most turians are. A rule that includes most of the men I work with, no offense Kaidan."

"That's fine, you're a bit too headstrong for me anyway," Kaidan waved her off with a heartfelt smile.

Joker was about to make a joke when he was interrupted by a call from the back of ship, "_Joker, status report._"

"Just cleared the mass relay and entered into the Asgard System. Stealth system is engaged. Everything seems fine," Joker reported with a stiff posture that caused Cortona to giggle.

"_Good, find a Comm. Buoy and link with it. I want status reports delivered to High Command before we reach Eden Prime,_" Admiral David Anderson ordered over the comm.

"Aye, aye, Admiral," Joker replied before he realized he had one more thing to report. "Better watch yourself sir, I think Nihlus is coming your way."

"_He's already here Lieutenant_," Anderson growled in a way that made Joker snort. "_Have John, Jane and their team report to the war room for a debriefing!_" Anderson ordered before the comm. cut.

"You heard that sirs, ma'am?" Joker asked.

"He sounds angry, something must have gone wrong with the mission," John stated with a distain as he moved toward the end of the ship.

"The Admiral is always angry when he talks to me," Joker grumbled.

"Can't possibly imagine why?" Kaidan added as he got up to walk with his commanders.

The _CSS Normandy_ is a five-deck ship with four main decks and a large cabin quarter at the very top reserved for the commander of the ship to sleep and house private meetings with VIPs or discuss privately with those under the commander. The other four decks can be summed up with a few words. Deck 4 is the hanger bay with the shuttles, Mako and a smaller hover tank version of the Mako, the M-44 Hammerhead, while Deck 3 is engineering and the cargo facility. Deck 2 is the crew quarters, lounges, medical facility, mess hall and firing control, while deck one, held not only the cockpit and CIC at the front, but some other special systems.

On the starboard side of Deck 1 was the Research and Manufacturing Facility closed off to most personal, and it was only accessible via the CIC. The port side held a waiting room and a secured door guarded by a human and a krogan bickering like a married couple. Past the guards was the War Room, a large facility that held meetings to discuss the mission plan for soldiers, as well as officers like Sarah and Eliza who were hard at work in keeping the ship up to date on news. It was the perfect place for Nihlus to camp out in as he looked at a holographic image of Eden Prime was being played as the team walked in.

He soon turned his attention to the large group led by John and Jane Shepard. "Ah, Commander, Captain, I was hoping to talk to you. We have some time to talk before the Admiral arrives."

"About what?" Jane asked with a quisitive look.

"Well about Eden Prime for starter," Nihlus pointed out. "I hear it's quite beautiful."

"Well, the way Sergeant Jenkins and my old uncle talk about it, it's a paradise," Trex stated in the background.

"What he said," Jane nodded along as she pointed back to Trex.

"Yes, a paradise. Serene, tranquil, Eden Prime has become a symbol of unity to the Confederation and so much more." Nihlus nodded along as he went in for his point. "Proof that the krogans can achieve domestic peace and humanity can not only colonized the stars but also protect them. But how safe is it really?"

"You know something?" John asked suspiciously

"You humans are still newcomers to the galaxy and your outcast allies have only recently ended their 'exile' to the galactic stage. Do you think that all of you are ready for this?" Nihlus asked while Anderson stepped down from behind him.

"I think it's time for them to know what is really going on, Nihlus," David Anderson told Nihlus who nodded in acceptance.

"This run is more than a simple pickup mission," Nihlus told the group.

"Wow, I guess Joker's paranoia is not as farfetched as I thought," Kaidan mumbled as he took a seat.

This left Legion-VII to ask the important question with an annoying click, "Why weren't we informed of this Anderson-Admiral?"

"You know the drill for top secret missions, it was on a need to know basis," Anderson told the group as they nodded in acceptance. "A research team unearthed some kind of Beacon on Eden Prime. It was Prothean."

This caused the group to gasp as Velanna quietly muttered, "I thought the Protheans disappeared fifty thousand years ago."

A mutter Nihlus heard as he smiled at the meek elf, who squeaked as Nihlus continued the conversation, "There legacy still remains. The Mass Relays, the Citadel, our ship drive cores, anything that does not deal with dilithium crystals are all based off Prothean technology."

"This is big. When humanity discovered the Prothean Archive on Mars, it jumped forward our technology by over a hundred years. The only thing comparable to such a leap was discovering the amplitude of dilithium crystals in its use to store and focus energy," Anderson stated.

"It's especially concerning since the Beacons were determined to be long range communication technology used by the Prothean Empire's organic units for instant communication via telepathic properties to transfer information into a person's mind," Legion-VII clicked in response. "That means at least it could contain the last moments of the Prothean Empire, or significantly advance technology that many units would kill for."

"Exactly why we need to pick it up and deliver it to the Citadel where both Confederation and Council scientists are waiting to examine it," Anderson explained.

"Why are we taking the Prothean Beacon to the heart of Citadel Space instead of keeping it or bringing it to an independent planet?" John asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No offense to you but all the members of your club do not have the best reputation," Nihlus stated sadly. "The krogans are viewed as brutes due to their part in the Krogan Rebellion and until recently had no unified government outside of gangs and pirates. The quarians, while losing their images of thieves during their time on the migrant fleet, are still distrusted for making the geth, and I don't need to tell you people fear AIs in Citadel Space."

Legion-VII clicked in annoyance as the turian continued, "And humans are viewed as too ambitious, too unpredictable, and even dangerous. Combined with being at the forefront of dilithium crystals technology and involved in the bloodiest conflicts in the last one thousand years… well I don't need to go on, do I?"

"Sharing that Beacon will be good PR for us, and improve our relationship with the Council. Besides, we need their expertise anyway. They have been studying Prothean technology longer then we have," Anderson explained to his men with a nod before Nihlus approached the group.

"The Beacon is not the only reason I'm here."

"Nihlus is here to evaluate you as a SPECTRE agent, Commander," Anderson explained.

"I guess it explains why I keep running into him," Jane mussed while Velanna made a soft, quiet comment.

"Why would the Council accept a foreign power agent as one of their own?"

"With our increasing number of joint operations in the Attican Traverse and the lawless Terminus Systems, both sides recognize we needed to make a joint team for future operations. Therefore, the Council proposed this idea. That one of our members will be accepted into the SPECTREs to work with agents from the Citadel Council that would speak for the Council, while his or her squad will speak for the Confederation," Anderson explained while Nihlus nodded along.

"You two humans and your entire team showed skill and commitment to not only get the job done but to do it right. It is exemplary and why I nominated your entire team," Nihlus stated, shocking the group into whispers.

"Why would a turian even do such a thing?" John asked out loud.

"Not all of my species hold a grudge for mistakes of the past. Some of us see potential in every race in your club and how much a… ally the Confederation can be," Nihlus quickly corrected himself.

"I assume this is good for the CAW?" John asked.

"Yes, so I expect you to be on your best behavior Captain," Anderson stated before Nihlus took over.

"I need to see your team in action. Eden Prime will be one of several missions we do together, before and after Jane becomes a SPECTRE as I teach her the rope as we work together, Captain."

"Don't you mean Anderson?" John asked.

"He knows what he means Captain. As no matter how this mission turns out, for better or worse, Eliza and I will be transferring to _CSS Waterloo_ as Captain John Shepard takes command of the _CSS Normandy_," Anderson announced to the group.

"Sir?" John asked in confusion.

"This has been a move I've been planning for awhile now, and with the push for Jane to become a SPECTRE convinced me now is the time to hand over the reigns as it were," Anderson explained with a small chuckle. "Though seriously, I know you all will do well."

The whole crew stood motional less until Jane developed a small smile as she stood straight and saluted Anderson, and the rest of the crew followed suit as Jane stated, "We won't let you down, Sir!"

"I know you won't Commander, but thank you for the reassurance," Anderson smiled as some of the staff chuckled before he got serious. "Now I suggest you all suit up. We'll be heading to Eden Prime-"

Anderson started off when Joker interrupted him over the intercom, "_Admiral, we have a problem_!"

"What is it Joker?" Anderson demanded.

"_We've picked-up a distress signal from Eden Prime. It's not pretty_," Cortona had answered for Joker.

"Show me," Anderson ordered.

Immediately, the holographic image of the planet turned into a cube with a large screen on each side, showing a large battle was taking place. The color picture showed much gunfight as a woman in camouflage armor appeared on screen. The tanned woman with a target scope over her right eye yelled at the screen to tell the crew the situation, or trying too through all the static, "_This is Lieutenant 1st Class Ashley Williams of the 212th infantry on [static] Prime, speaking for General Martock of [static] Haliot to say we are under attack from [static]. We're suffering heavy [static], our defense fleet and QEC has been destroyed, most of our communication are [static], and our [static] defenses were hacked, making them inoperable. We need [static] assistance. Please send… my God, what is that_?"

The cameraman turned his camera towards the sky to show a ship 2km long with tentacles descend onto the ground before it opened fired with red-hot molten beam and the image was cut. "_There is nothing else except for static, sir, nothing,_" Cortona reported over the comm.

"Reverse the image and hold at twenty eight point three seconds," Anderson ordered and the image stopped at the ship. One look and he stated, "So it returned."

"What?" Jane asked out loud, as Anderson looked with interest.

"Something I'm not at liberty to say except that last time we saw that ship it cost us several ships and thousands of personal. This will be bad," Anderson stated before turning towards Sarah. "Sarah, relay this message. We need reinforcements now!"

"Yes sir!" Sarah saluted before she ran to the QEC station to carry out his order.

As the qunari relayed the message, Anderson continued on his orders, "Joker, move us in fast and quiet. We need to get to the Beacon."

"_Aye sir_!" Joker replied before disconnecting to do his job as Anderson looked over the crew.

"Alright Jane, you will take Kaidan, Trex and Legion-VII to the planet below to retrieve the Beacon with Nihlus. I'm hoping the combination of firepower, knowledge of the place and hacking ability will be important in getting that Beacon with a small team."

"A small team will increase the chance of our success," Nihlus nodded concurring with Anderson's reasoning.

"What about survivors, sir?" Kaidan asked Anderson.

"Helping survivors is a secondary concern, the Beacon is your primarily concern," Anderson told the group.

Jane flinched at such an order as she grumbled, "Yes sir!"

"As for you John and Velanna, I have a separate mission for you two," Anderson stated to the human and elf. "As you may know, today was Unification Day for the Krogan Clan Alliance. As such, Supreme Commander of the Krogans is there to give a speech of a changing tomorrow. Since we cannot afford to lose him, I am assigning you two to find Urdnot, Wrex and keep him alive."

"Damn… why couldn't I be on John's team?" Trex muttered out loud while John saluted.

"I'll find him sir, but I'll need a guide, as well as a hacker of my own," John told the admiral.

Jane had a solution when she stated, "Jenkins was born on Eden Prime. He would surely make a good guide."

"I'll take him but I'll still need a technical expert with computers since we don't know exactly what we face," John pointed out.

"Go down to Engineering to see if Adams has anyone. Otherwise suit up and prepare for planet side," Anderson ordered the crew.

The men soon ran out to get ready for the beginning of a long haul.

**Location: Exodus Cluster/Asgard System/CSS Normandy: Deck 3**

**Human Date: February 3, 2083**

Under the hum of the element zero drive core, a female quarian in a black/purplish suit with yellow around the neck was on her back, working on a console. She was putting the last pieces together as sweat dripped from her cute, thin face, long fizzled hair and long pale eyes. The quarian felt relief until she felt a tug on one of her two-digit toes on her right foot.

The quarian shrieked as she yelled, "Chief Adams, what are you doing!"

The human chuckled as he stated, "I needed to get your attention somehow Tali. Now come on out, we have an important guest here."

The quarian, Tali, slowly pushed herself out to face the older, tanned human with shaven brown hair and green eyes. He stood in a black jumpsuit with orange stripes that was a contrast to his armored guest. A man she recognized as she shot up and saluted the Captain, "Ensign Tali'Zorah nar _Normandy_, reporting in sir!"

"At ease Ensign, this is not an inspection," declared Captain John Shepard. "I'm told from Lieutenant Commander Greg Adams that you're the best if I'm looking for a field technician with hacking skill. Is that true?"

"I graduated top of my class and was recruited out the academy due to my superb skills. I'm also qualified in all weapons sir!" Tali nodded with a nervous step.

"Any field experience?" John asked and Tali nervously shook her head.

"No sir! I was recruited just as I graduated from the Academy a month ago."

"Well your about to get a crash course. An unknown enemy is attacking Eden Prime and we'll need a technician and possible hacker on the field. So get ready Ensign!"

"Yes sir!" Tali saluted as she scrambled to find her helmet as Adams followed her.

She fidgeted as she opened-up her locker to pull out a large helmet with a glass visor that showed her eyes and face. She had a difficult time snapping it on when Adam took over to help the young woman. "Calm down Tali, you'll do fine."

Tali smiled as the last snap was put in place as she pulled a purple cloth over the back of the helmet, "Maybe, but I wasn't expecting to be doing field work so soon."

"Well they will always keep you on your toes, but trust me, you can do this and you have some good people watching your back," Adams smiled trying to reassure the young woman.

"Thank you Chief. I won't let you down," Tali saluted before she walked towards the elevator with a confident step.

Tali did not hear Adams say, "Stay safe," to him as she walked into the elevator. All she heard was the closing doors and the rapid descend to Deck 4 where she saw the Captain waiting.

The Captain stared at the scared girl before asking, "I'll trust you have personal weapons?"

"Yes sir, I'll just need to get them out of the locker to modify them," Tali stammered.

"Then snap to it," John ordered and Tali immediately followed suit as she went to a workbench.

She quickly pulled out two weapons. One was the Geth Plasma Shotgun, a geth looking shotgun that can fire at three points at once. The second was the Arc Pistol, a slick pistol that fires electrical charge bullets enhanced by the disrupter rounds she added to the program of both her weapons. She quickly got to work as Commander Jane Shepard looked over with a comforting smile as she picked up her weapons.

"Don't be nervous, my brother may seem stern but he'll make sure you get through this alive," Jane stated with a small smile.

"Thank you Commander," Tali nervously stated.

"Call me Jane, Tali. Commander makes me feel old," Jane had giggled in response.

"Yes Jane," Tali nodded as she looked at her weapons on the tool table. "Do you have any recommendation? I didn't expect to be in the field so soon after graduating."

"I suggest you stick to the standards, like extended barrel and piercing slash shredder mods to increase damage for your weapons, especially against armored targets. Stability damper and smart choke for pistols and shotguns to increase accuracy, and a thermal clip capacity upgrade to increase the number of times you can fire in a rapid succession before you need to reload; and add for your standard melee weapons, a melee stunner for the pistol and a bayonet for the shotgun.

"Scopes are only useful for riffles at long range attacks, otherwise stick to stability dampers slash smart chokes. Making the weapon lighter is only useful for heavier weapons and the user is a power user who uses power amplifiers. Other specialization technology is best left to the decision of an expert, such as heat sinkers or heavy types that increase accuracy and power," Jane explained and Tali nodded as she quickly got to work.

However, her work did not stopped Tali from asking questions, "Is this common for all soldiers in the CAW?"

"Only for elite soldiers or officers, otherwise it's just extended barrel, bayonet and scope slash stability dampers for soldiers. Though we go even further we have even more specialized technology you will see in the most elite forces. Just think of it as a perk of being recruited into the First Battalion," Jane explained with a small smile as Tali finished her modification before the two headed to the hanger door.

There, the chubby face sergeant with blue eyes was examining his heavy M-55 Argus assault rifle, "Finally, I'm going to see some action. Hopefully this will be the end of guard duty!"

"We'll see if you remain happy when you see so much death that it upsets your stomach Sergeant Jenkins," John added as he turned towards the Admiral waiting for them.

"Remember your objective is to secure Urdnot, Wrex and the Beacon while keeping an eye out for this unknown enemy," Anderson told his men as they nodded in acceptance.

It was then that Joker reported, "_Were approaching Nihlus's drop point_. _Man it's a mess out there_."

Jane was surprised as she turned to see Nihlus, small, yet heavy M-11 Wraith shotgun as he put up his heavy, turian style Krysae Sniper Rifle that fired exploding harpoon rounds. "You're not coming with us?"

"I move faster on my own," Nihlus stated as he ran out of the ship.

"Nihlus will scout out ahead and give reports on narrow beam communication that should cut through the interference. Otherwise, I want you on radio silence," Anderson ordered.

"We've got this!" brother and sister reported at the same time.

"The mission belongs to both of you, Shepards. Good luck," Anderson nodded before they reached the second drop zone. Both teams ran out of the ship and went their separate ways once they hit the ground.

**Exodus Cluster/Asgard System/Eden Prime: Team 1**

**Human Date: February 3, 2183**

On the planet below, chaos descended off in the distance as John and his four-man team walked across the field to see bodies of civilians laid on the ground. Jenkins gasped as he stated, "My god. What happened here?"

John pulled out his omni-tool to scan the corpses to exclaim, "This is odd, several of the people were killed by melee weapons, while others were killed by an unknown rifle that seemed to fire a beam of needle bullets similar to geth weapons, but with more power power."

"That suggests it's not any of the various warlords found in the Terminus Systems or the Batarians, but someone else with very advanced weaponry," Tali gasped.

"Who could have done this?" asked Valena.

"Let's find out!" John suggested as they moved forward at a slow pace, ready for anything.

Every second was agonizing as they found no enemy units, only native life forms known as gasbags, bloated creatures that made popping sounds as they floated along. The team was stiff as they approached a ledge when they heard movement in the crunching of grass. Thinking they finally met the enemy, John ordered Jenkins to approach with a subtle gesture. Jenkins nodded as he moved on ahead as the other three followed with caution.

Jenkins looked over the edge, hoping to find the enemy and find some action when he saw nothing in the field ahead. He should have looked up as a creature that looked like a short, green goblin in a black, organic armor jumped on top of him. Jenkins screamed as the monster raised his sword high and brought it down again and again three times before his shield broke and the monster stabbed Jenkins in the neck.

Jenkins fell to the ground as the creature slowly raised up to face them with blank eyes. A creature they recognized as Velanna raised up her sniper rifle and yelled, "Darkspawn!" before putting three bullets into the goblin's head.

One of many that appeared as several human looking darkspawn called grunts came to the field with the goblins that decloaked. Tali quickly responded with her shotgun as her Geth Plasma Shotgun killed one close by while John cut one down with his dual omni-blade. A few grunts did not like it as they took aim with organic looking riffles, only to be jammed with a wave of a glowing omni-tool from Tali's hand.

Meanwhile, John wasted no time to fire with his semi-automatic M-96 Murdock to kill two of the darkspawn while using a biotic warp to destroy a third. All the while, Velanna concentrated her energies to create a toxic field in the center of the approaching horde. The horde firing on her began coughing widely as the acidic vapor entered their throat. Only to be relieved when Tali'Zorah fired an incendiary blast into the horde to create an explosion that killed most of the darkspawn. That left the last darkspawn to be killed by a strike into the head by Velanna's vine whip formed from her free hand.

The crackling sound of broken skull was the relief they need to know the battle was over, they had won and John knew who to congratulate, "Good job Ensign. Your quick thinking got us through this ambush swimmingly well."

"Thank you sir," Tali answered with a smile as Velanna examined Jenkins before looking with a sad face that he was beyond help for he was already dead.

Seeing that face, John shook his head to state, "We'll worry about his body later; right now we have a mission to finish."

Velanna nodded stiffly as she turned over the darkspawn to do a scan to find something of interest, "Sir… I'm picking up a larger number of implants in the darkspawn and I can't tell you half the things it does. I'm sending it to Cortona and Eliza now."

"Wonderful, so we're dealing with darkspawn with advance technology. This is not our day," John had sighed as he pulled up his omni-tool to contact his sister and the SPECTRE, "Jane, Nihlus, heads up. I've identified the enemy. It is darkspawn."

"_Tell me something I don't know!_" yelled a familiar female voice on the other side of the comm.

**Location: Exodus Cluster/Asgard System/Eden Prime: Team 2**

**Human Date: February 3, 2183**

"Tell me something I don't know?" Jane yelled as she sent out a lightening pulse to send another wave of fire into a horde of darkspawn heading her way.

Her team made quick work of the thin body, amphibian looking darkspawn that appeared around her. Their shields, while strong were not able to handle the power attacks from her team. Soon the sound of battle ended as she wiped some blood off her tomahawk as she reported, "We've encounter some darkspawn as well, vrog subclass to be specific."

"_So with the grunt and goblin types, makes human and salarian darkspawn types so far. Looks like we've found are attackers_," John told his sister through the comm.

"Looks like it but I have never seen weapons like this before," Jane stated as she tried to pick up the organic looking sniper rifle.

Just before it disintegrate within her hand as she jumped up in shock. She looked around to see the darkspawn's armor was also falling apart as her team tried to scan as much as they could. Jane snarled as she stated, "Don't bother trying to salvage it. Looks like it under a self-destruct mechanism."

"_Yet not fast enough to prevent me from analyzing the shit out of your scans,_" Cortona added through the ship. "_Not that I can tell you much, except not only is the armor organic, but I've also found several implants. I can't determine what all of them are but a few of them are similar to slave implants that the Batarian Slavers are known to use to keep slaves obedient; along with general enhancements to make them stronger, faster and generally more dangerous._"

"_Someone is controlling them? Well that's just great!_" John snarled. "_The Darkspawn War cost us nearly two billion humans, krogans, geth and quarians when they were just organized animals. Someone controlling them will just make our job harder._"

Jane sighed as she asked through the comm., "You got all this Nihlus?"

"_I have and scouting out darkspawn camps. After we get the Beacon, we'll search for evidence on who is controlling them_," Nihlus reported and Jane nodded along.

"_Sounds like a plan_," John added through the comm. for a brief pause before adding another brief thought. "_We'll being heading out now. Tali just download a map for us to use since our guide did not survive our first encounter against the darkspawn._"

"Jenkins is dead!" Jane almost yelled as her body shook.

"_Yes he's dead, but we'll worry about that later. We've got a mission to complete_," John stated through the transmutation.

Jane quivered as she stated, "I hear you and we're moving out. Jane out."

Jane disconnected the comm. and looked at her subordinates, "Come on, we've got a mission to complete. Let's step on it."

Her fellow soldiers nodded along as they headed out into the field, their weapons ready for a long haul. Off in the distance, an old krogan was singing war songs to rally his men, while a first class lieutenant was running for her life. The Battle for Eden Prime has just begun.

**Done with this chapter; it wasn't as long as the first but I felt it was a good place to stop for Eden Prime is going to be longer then I planned. Stay tune to a computer near you for the next chapter. **

**Author Note**

**A) Sorry about the delay, it would have been two months ago but my Beta Reader is having technical difficulty and trying to catch up with several chapters work. Along with studying and several jobs, updates will be slow. **

**1) Well the first scene, I wasn't sure I wanted to do for I felt it would hurt the flow of the story but decided to keep it as a good introduction of a few crewmembers. **

**2) Since they're covering a small distance on a Secondary Relay, I'm assuming the drift is smaller than it would be for a Primarily Mass Relay, which is quoted to have an average, "several thousand kilometer drift." **

**3) Ashley Williams has a similar rank to Kaidan in this story for General Williams did not have to retire in disgrace and had a successful career on Shaanxi and on Earth, though that will create its own problem in future chapters. **

**4) Velanna acting shy is explained in codex and the fact she is a magician with a desire demon. **

**5) I could not think of a krogan name so I used a klingon's name. Sue me. **

**6) Tali, nervous on her first mission and a brief explanation on modified weapons, enjoy.**

**Character Stats**

Name and Rank: Supreme Commander Urdnot, Wrex

Species: krogan

Class: vanguard (biotic)

Special: can fall into a berserker mode in combat

Melee Weapon: biotic mace

Grenades: lift grenade

Kinetic Weapons: Striker Assault Rifle (heavy barrel), Graal Spike Thrower (heavy barrel), and Blood Pack Punisher (heavy barrel)

Ammo: warp rounds

Next

Name and Rank: SPECTRE Nihlus Kryik

Species: turian

Class: hypnotist (tech)

Melee Weapons: electrical omni-blade

Kinetic Weapons: M-11 Wraith, M-77 Paladin and Krysae Sniper Rifle

Ammo: cryo rounds

Next

Name and Rank: Lieutenant 1st Class Ashley Williams (N6)

Species: human

Class: marksman (soldier)

Melee Weapon: omni-blade

Grenades: frag grenades

Kinetic Weapons: M-96 Mattock (heavy barrel), M-3 Phalanx, &amp; Black Widow (heavy barrel &amp; thermal scope)

Ammo: drill rounds

Next

Name and Rank: Ensign Tali'Zorah nar Normandy

Species: quarian

Class: combat engineer (tech)

Melee Weapon: monomolecular bladed knife

Grenades: arc grenade

Kinetic Weapons: Arc Pistol &amp; Geth Plasma Shotgun

Ammo: disruptor ammo


	3. Chapter 3: Eden Prime Part 2

Mass Dragon Effect I: Shadows of the Past

Chapter 3: Eden Prime Part 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Mass Effect and Dragon Age. Those are owned by Bioware, and I'm currently waiting to see if EA have drained their soul yet.**

**Beta Reader: Albert**

**Last Update: 10/6/2016**

**Location: Exodus Cluster/Asgard System/Eden Prime: Team 1**

**Human Date: February 3, 2183**

Eden Prime, once a rich green world had turned into a world of smoke and fire as fighting broke out across the entire planet laid siege by beasts not seen since the invasion of Earth. The invading darkspawn were terrible creatures that kill any living being they meet. Though their targets are not going to make it easy as John, Velanna and Tali crossed through the darken field to a planetary computer connected by harden landlines spread across the planet. The quarian quickly went to work while being defended by the human and elf that were her commanders.

She was working to break through the interference to open a line of communication. It was a difficult battle as Tali yelled out, "Give me a minute as I work on the console."

"We've got your back Ensign," John ordered as he got into position as he looked at his partner, who closed her eyes. "Sense anyone coming."

Velanna nodded as she opened her eyes, "Darkspawn coming in fast. Our HUDs (heads up display) will be able to pick them up now."

A bleep soon appeared on John's eyepiece as he saw eight targets appear and they were coming in fast. "It must be war dogs. They're the only darkspawn that are that fast on land and remain cloaked." Tali stiffened in admission as the HUD identified the targets but with some interesting results. "No, five of them are war dogs, and the other three are unknown."

"How soon will they get here?" Tali asked as she trembled in fear.

"Now," John had stated as the darkspawn came into sight.

All darkspawn are based off known species corrupted into nightmarish creatures. War dogs are corrupted forms of quarians forced into the forms of werewolves with their long muzzle as they ran on all fours. They were fierce, terrible killers that few could keep up with during a chase. Among those few were these new creatures were tall, corrupted humanoid creatures with four arms, eights eyes and a bottom half that looked like the body of a spider. They were well equipped with either, four swords, four pistols or two shotguns to go along with their sharp teeth.

They were going to be a nightmare in close quarters combat, so Velanna wasted no time to take out these new threats as she pulled out a sniper rifle and fired off three successful shots into one of the spiders head. Causing it to collapse on the field as John opened fired on the darkspawn rushing towards him, killing three war dogs. In response, one of the war dogs got up onto its hind legs, pulled out an assault rifle with its pawed hands and opened fire with a stream of bullets. This forced John and Valena to take cover as the war hound fired suppressive fire as the spider like darkspawn with four pistols joined in. Tali let out a squeak of fear as she jumped behind a desk to hide from a second war dog with strong kinetic barriers had opened fired at Tali.

She quivered as she worked her omni-tool program to create a holographic drone to help her while she kept working on the computer. The drone flew fast away from Tali and towards its target with advanced programming to attack the two darkspawn attacking John and Velanna. It fired off a jolt of overloading electricity to cause the two darkspawn to jump back and allow the elf and human to fight back. Velanna took advantage as she fired off a paralyzing field to hold the two in place, while John used incinerate on the creature, causing its armor to combust. The war dog quickly fell to the ground dead as the spider like darkspawn tried to escape. Try being the key word as Velanna set-up its downfall while John concentrated on the sheilded war dog, using overload to drain the shield's power before firing on it to wear down its shield.

As John wore down his target's shields, Velanna struck the spider like darkspawn with powerful hexes so that a second electrical strike from quarian's drone killed the darkspawn. Tali celebrated her kill as John had downed the second darkspawn the same time Velanna's killed hers. Though it seemed they forgot that there was another darkspawn to watch out for as the spider like darkspawn appeared in front of John, its swords raised to cut John down. John dropped and rolled away from the darkspawn, barely avoiding the strike as moved to get some distance.

Distance John used to quickly recovered as he got onto his feet and ran towards the darkspawn. The two dashed towards each other as John developed an orange omni-blade in each hand. The darkspawn slashed down and hit John's kinetic barriers. It held for a second before it broke, but that was all the time John needed to strike the darkspawn right in its chest with his omni-blades. John's shield quickly recharged as he deactivate his omni-blades, allowing the darkspawn to fall to the ground, dead.

With the darkspawn dead, Tali stared in awe at her commander's skill until John yelled out, "Get back to work Ensign! I want to know where Wrex is now!"

"Yes sir!" Tali chirped as she went back to work while John and Velanna examined the new darkspawn.

Her omni-tools sensors took quick DNA samples to find a familiar DNA with species they are all too familiar with as John snarled, "Batarians! Of course the darkspawn that we've never seen before would be batarians."

Velanna glared at the corpse when a revelation hit her, "Do you think whoever is controlling these darkspawn helped the batarians attack Terra Nova and…?"

"And betrayed them once they were no longer useful, yes that seems likely. Especially if it will force our fleet to hunt for them, leaving Eden Prime vulnerable to attack as we look for threats at the edge of the Exodus cluster," John clicked as he opened a comm. "_Normandy_ and fellow ground teams, we have encountered a new darkspawn type created by what looks like batarians. Sending data collected along with vocal notes made by me and Velanna."

"_Right, were processing the data and all were missing is a name for this subclass and since you encountered them, you get to name them!_" Cortona chirped through the comm.

"Arachnoids," John stated and Cortona upload the codex.

"_Got it Captain and I am in the process of turning it into a codex to be sent to the entire galaxy to view_. _It should be uploaded now,_" Cortona stated before Anderson took over to ask his subordinate an important question.

"_John, how close are you to finding Wrex?_"

John was about to retort when Tali yelled, "I've got him. His last report stated he was helping the military defend a Geth server some three clicks away."

John nodded as he reported, "We are going to him now. I'll report if I succeed or fail to find him, John out."

John then ended the transmission as he watched Tali get up with her shotgun out as he pulled out his pistol and submachine gun. Without saying a word, the three headed out to Wrex's last location.

**Location: Exodus Cluster/Asgard System/Eden Prime: Team 2**

**Human Date: February 3, 2183**

Out in the field, Jane's team blazed through grassy rock lands of Eden Prime, finding only a few scouting darkspawn to fight. That was until they came upon a quarry where they observed a woman running for her life. She had every reason to flee as following her were thin bodied, elfish darkspawn that resembled the alien from the old human movie '_Alien._' Though without the bulge head or the second mouth, but instead it had spiked gauntlets. These darkspawn known as shrieks were gaining ground on the lieutenant until Ashley Williams slipped on the ground and pulled out her small, blue M-3 Phalanx pistol and opened fire in rapid succession, killing the two shrieks with pinpoint accuracy that would leave most envious.

Though it was only a half measure as it brought the young woman to the attention of others; specifically darkspawn grunts holding a soldier over a large platform while a hulking alpha grunt in thick armor smiled sadistically behind its horned helmet. Ashley knew what was going to happen as fear spread onto her quivering lips. That was no warning when a spike went through the man's chest that raised up much like the victims of Vlad the Impaler. Ashley gave a silent scream as she ran behind some rocks, ready to fight a last stand as she pulled out her M-96 Mattock.

A stand she would not need the moment she heard explosions and darkspawn screaming in pain from behind. Ashley looked over the corner to see several explosions within the darkspawn's lines and they just kept coming. So Ashley looked up to see a krogan with black/reddish armor firing explosive rounds from his M-37 Falcon into the horde of darkspawn while a blue and silver geth sniped targets with its Javelin sniper rifle. Ashley felt relief as she saw two humans run to her location, close enough for her HUD to identify the four soldiers that were coming to her aid. When she saw the names of her saviors, she felt rejuvenated as she yelled out a war cry and joined her saviors in the field of battle.

Captain Jane Shepard and Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko hit hard and quick through what remained of the darkspawn lines, ready to hit the alpha when they were intercepted by shielded enemies. Jane went against a mage darkspawn type while Kaidan went up against a biotic type. Jane stopped to use a telekinesis pull to slam a rock into a darkspawn, but it avoided the object and retaliated with a lightening spells. Jane responded with a more powerful lightening attack that forced the current flow of electricity back towards to the darkspawn who screamed in shock. Lightening soon dance round and took down the creature's shield. The darkspawn was not ready for Jane to freeze the creature before crushing it with her telekinesis to destroy the mage subtype while Kaidan took care of his opponent.

Kaidan's opponent was a vanguard type as it sent a biotic charge at Kaidan and readied to fire his shotgun but Kaidan was quicker as he pulled out his N7 Crusader and opened fire at point blank. Forcing the darkspawn to stumble back from the blow, Kaidan then used overload to finish off its shield, just before hitting it with a biotic warp to break open its armor. The darkspawn stumbled back, clutching its chest as it looked up to see Kaidan's shotgun pointed at it just before the human blew its head off, ending the lieutenant of a pissed off alpha darkspawn.

An alpha content to end the lives of its enemy, as it pulled out a grenade to throw at them when it noticed another grenade rolling-up to its feet. The frag grenade exploded, taking out its shields and caused the plasma grenade in its hand to explode, destroying its entire arm in the process. The darkspawn howled in pain as it turned to one responsible for blowing off its arm when it saw Ashley William come up with her assault rifle. It gave one defiant howl before Ashley shot it three times in the head; it was killed by the third shot.

Leaderless, the renaming darkspawn were soon wiped out to the last creature by the well-oiled team. In the end, the only thing left was Jane's team and Lieutenant Ashley William as the only living thing within the quarry as they faced each other, guns ready for an ambush as Ashley introduced herself, "Lieutenant First Class Ashley Williams, commander of what is left of the 212th infantry, are you the one in charge ma'am."

"Of this team, yes," Jane stated as she looked over the woman. "Are you hurt Williams?"

"Just a few scrapes and burns," Ashley said solemnly. "The rest of my men were not so lucky."

"What happened Lieutenant?" Kaidan asked the young woman, who gave a solemn answer.

"We were out on patrol, making sure no one got too close to the dig site where we held this artifact down."

"The Prothean Beacon?" Trex asked and Ashley nodded yes.

"Yes," Ashley acknowledged. "We were keeping people away from the Prothean Beacon when the attack happened. Realizing the enemy was jamming our communication, we setup narrow beam communication to contact command. We were then ordered to hold a comm. station, send a S.O.S. and defend it as long as we could."

"We saw that when we intercepted your cries for help," Trex said with grim face.

"We held on as long as we could but I knew it was a lost cause, so I ordered a retreat. Sadly, it came too late," Ashley added with almost a tear falling from her face. "We were overwhelmed by sheer numbers and when I saw the last soldier under my command die, I ran and ran until I ran into you. And now I'm all that's left."

Jane grabbed onto the woman's shoulder to state, "There was no way you could have avoided this."

"Yes ma'am," Ashley stated solemnly, conveying that she was not convinced of it herself.

Jane was about to ask the woman questions when she was interrupted by Nihlus through comm. "_Jane, Nihlus here. I'm at the dig site and there are a lot of bodies up here. But I don't see the Beacon or any enemy movements. I think the enemy has moved the Beacon._"

Jane was about to question where when Ashley stated, "Maybe not ma'am, sir. We were moving the Beacon to the spaceport for extraction when the attack happened. Perhaps it's still at the spaceport."

"Any chance of survivors there as well?" Kaidan asked Ashley who looked too scared to be hopeful.

"Perhaps," Ashley reluctantly admitted. "The 225th infantry was protecting the workers and scientist in the area. Perhaps their unit fared better than mine, but I doubt it."

Jane nodded as she asked through the comms, "You got that Nihlus."

"_Yes, and I see the spaceport up ahead, I'll meet you there_," the turian reported before communication was cut.

Jane then looked to Ashley to state, "Come with us, we could use your help."

"Aye-aye ma'am," Ashley stated with a grin on her face. "It's time for payback."

Jane, feeling a sense of déjà vu with the woman nodded as she ordered her men to, "Move out!"

Ashley nodded in compliance as the five-man squad moved forward to the spaceport and dig site up ahead, starting a chain reaction that will end in the death of a comrade.

**Location: Exodus Cluster/Asgard System/Eden Prime/Eden Prime/Geth Server 7**

**Human Date: February 3, 2183**

Within a flat grassland was the entrance to an underground bunker/cave that held one of several Geth Servers found on Eden Prime. It was defended by shield generator, machine guns, turrets and the only cover within a kilometer served as a perfect place for the server's defenders. Defenders that include soldiers in camouflage armor and geth troops of all types, including the thin hoppers, hovering rectangular bombers and the hulking four legged armatures that resembles a silver brachiosaurus with a turret for a head. They were in perfect position to defend from the wave after wave of darkspawn descended on them.

Automated and manned machineguns fired on the approaching horde as the ground soon was littered with corpses, but that did not slow them down or make them less dangerous as new trouble came from the sky. Avians, the corrupted forms of turians, were terrible creatures that resembled feathered version of pterodactyls that swooped in to get their prey from the clouds in the sky. The defenders were able to kill a number of them as they swooped down, the avians still picked off the defenders with their razor sharp claws on their feet.

One such avians saw a hulking krogan in blackish red armor and made a dive towards him with open claws. Only for the scared krogan to pull a small, hulking shotgun with eight mini-heavy barrels attached and open fire at point blank. Wrex laughed at the creature's splattered remains as he pulled out a life grenade and threw it far into the approaching horde lines. They would not make it further as Wrex threw a biotic warp to detonate the dark energy, killing most of the darkspawn and weaken the few biotic, mage and tech darkspawn allowing them to be picked off by his fellow soldiers. He then gave an infectious grin as he swapped his shotgun with a Striker Assault Rifle and fired into the horde with biotic warped rounds that shredded material on contact. Pushing the darkspawn back, giving the others room to reinforce the line.

Wrex cheered in excitement but only for a moment before the horde renewed their attack as a new squad of avians assaulted the line. An assault lead by a master flyer, alpha of the group that was also a mage. With a flap of its wings, the darkspawn summoned a tornado of fire into the group of two krogans, a geth shock trooper and a human. Wrex watched in anger as the two krogans and single geth were consumed in the fire while the human fell back in pain. Only to fall victim when the master flyer avian grabbed onto the human and lifted him high into the air. Only o end the human's life mid flight with a squeezed before letting the woman fall in front of Wrex, almost giving Wrex a challenge as it threw down the gauntlet.

One Wrex responded by yelling, "Kill that avian!"

His men responded while opening fire on the darkspawn, but it avoided most of the attacks while its shield absorb the few lucky hits while the other members of the darkspawn horde made significant headway against the defenders. Wrex was worried the line would break when he heard gunfire off in the distance. He turned to see a team was attacking from behind the lines.

A team he recognized as he gave a deep laughing, "Looks like the grandchild of Alice McCoy is here to have fun! Ah the good old days!" Wrex lamented before he too joined the battle.

Behind the line, John was leading the charge with his highly accurate, rapid submachine gun and pistol. He fired into the horde, killing darkspawn with three to four shots while using biotic push to send them flying away. Giving the room for Velanna with her N7 Eagle Pistol, to lead the attack as the darkspawn found out the hard way as she summoned entropy and created leaches to swarm over several ground units and excrete toxins. The sight of the witch made Tali freak out as she shot the darkspawn with her arc pistol as she watched the darkspawn fell down with bite marks and silence. Tali nervously followed the elf as she pulled out a defense drone and combat drone to cover both the engineer and mage.

Velanna was taking advantage of such defense as she was drawing attention when she manipulated her environment. Plants mutated and grew into thorny vines that wrapped around the necks of unshielded darkspawn while others felt sleepy as they entered into a nightmare they would not wake from. It was not long before several darkspawn gave a satisfying crunch while others were rolling on a ground, shaking to death. This caused the avians to divert their attention towards the new threats, Team 1 of the _CSS Normandy_.

Just as John wanted as he yelled out, "Now!"

With the order given, Velanna manipulated the air above their head into highly corrosive, explosive gas that was in the flight path of a squad of avians. The darkspawn did not slow down as they entered into the gas, just as planned as John used his omni-tool to launch a plump of plasma from the incinerate program into the cloud, causing it to ignite. Immediately, several of the darkspawn was incinerated as they came crashing down, leaving only the master flyer avian to come out unscathed as its kinetic barriers took the brunt of the attack.

Pissed and out for revenge, the darkspawn turned its attention towards Velanna and fired off a fireball. Velanna powerful shields took the brunt of the attack. It was barely holding up as the avian swooped down to attack Velanna, its claws posed to strike the woman who did not look the least bit scared. The darkspawn found out why when Tali's holographic defense drone intercepted and detonated in front of the avian, taking out its shields and forcing it staggering back.

Right into Tali's line of sight as she used her omni-tool to fire off a cryo blast right into its back, causing it to freeze over and fall out of the sky. It landed head first into the ground, in an undignified position. It twitched and shivered from the cold as Tali finished it off with her omni-tool incinerate program, causing it to explode due the rapid change of temperature.

Tali gave a great whoop of excitement as she exclaimed, "Did you see that?"

John saw the darkspawn line disperse and he felt proud for Tali as he softly said to himself, "Good job Ensign. You did an excellent job," John added as he watched the darkspawn runaway.

He was not paying attention to the darkspawn class shriek that snuck up from behind, its blades ready to bare down on John. John noticed the shadow behind him and it would have been too late for him if a krogan had not sent a biotic charge into the shriek. The darkspawn slammed in the ground, unmoving as a large krogan stood over the human he just saved as John turned to face the scared krogan. A krogan he recognized as the man chuckled before him, in his deep krogan voice.

"I thought I was the one going to be rescued, not the other way around, aye Captain?" the red krogan stated as his green eyes glinted with merriment.

"I guess there are always exceptions to the rules, are you Urdnot, Wrex?" John asked the krogan who smiled in response.

"Yes I am and you must be the proud Captain John Shepard, a human after my one heart," Wrex laughed in excitement.

"You know me?" John asked.

"Oh yes, in fact I was discussing about you and your sister a few hours before everything went to, as the human would put it, to hell," Wrex laughed before he moved into more serious matters. "I assume that if you're here, then your sister is going to retrieve the beacon while you came here to end my fun."

"Yes, we have orders to escort you to safety," John stated as he waved Velanna and Tali towards him.

"Well that is interesting for I will need your team for a more important mission," Wrex grinned as John raised an eyebrow while Velanna voiced her disagreement.

"Sir, we have orders to escort you to safety. We can't afford to bring you into harm's way," Velanna pointed out with a nervous twitch as Wrex stared at the woman.

"That would be true if you didn't know what I know," Wrex stated. "Above our heads are a series of defense satellites under control by the enemy."

"What do you mean control. I thought they were just deactivated since they were not active when our ship passed by them," Velanna pointed out with a nervous cough.

"Deactivated only because your ship's stealth system was activated," Wrex stated much to the shock. "Otherwise your ship will suffer the same fate as our reinforcements will face if the darkspawn have continued control of one of our satellites stations on the surface."

"That will kill thousands, if not tens of thousands if they activate them when one of our Fleets arrives. We can't allow that to happen," Velanna muttered in quiet shock.

"I assume you have a plan to save the fleet?" John asked.

"You got it right on the mark. I know the perfect way to get their while avoiding the majority of the horde," Wrex pointed out. "Assuming of course your quarian is a skilled hacker."

"Tali?" John asked the young woman.

"I think I can hack it, I just need time," Tali reported with a nervous smile.

"Are you sure?" Wrex looked at Tali who began to sweat under the stare until John defended the girl.

"I can bet my life on it," John told Wrex with conviction. "And we can also warn the fleet though the _Normandy_."

"Then let's have it done," Wrex stated as he loaded his shotgun. "You lead and I'll follow."

**Location: Exodus Cluster/Asgard System/Eden Prime/Dig Site: Team 2**

**Human Date: February 3, 2183**

Deep within a camp of metal cargo trailers, that had surrounded the dig site Jane's five-man team had arrived. Their guns were out as they approached the dig site, guns out, ready for the worst to come. Yet it was empty, nothing but spikes as they came upon a field. Not a single darkspawn was in sight.

"I don't like this, it is too quiet," Trex grumbled as he gripped his shotgun.

"Keep your eyes open," Kaidan advised as they approached the dig site when they noticed off in the distance, more spikes similar to the one on which a poor man now hung.

"More spikes? Why would the Darkspawn impale their victims instead of eating them, Ma'am?" Ashley asked.

"I don't know Ashley, but the victims don't look human anymore," Jane stated as she looked up to the cybernetically modified human.

Nothing organic remained of bluish black corpses that hung overhead. They looked more like zombie robots then people as the group slowly approached them to get a better look. That what set it off as all of a sudden, the spike descended quickly to the ground, lowering the corpse, only for the team to realizing it was moving as pushed itself of the cylindrical platform.

"My god, they are still alive," Kaidan exclaimed in shock as the creature rose to its feet.

"What did the darkspawn do to them?" Ashley practically screamed as it turned to stare at them.

Stare at them with soulless eyes before it screamed and charged right up to them before Ashley used a burst of wind to send it tumbling to the ground. She put two bullets into the cybernetic zombie just before it exploded. It caused a chain reaction as over a dozen more spikes let down over a dozen more walking corpses.

Seeing the approaching horde, Jane yelled out, "Everyone, open fire!"

Jane did not need to order her men a second time as they responded with gunfire. They caught half of them in streams of bullets as they tried to gain their barring. However, the other half was able to gain a barring and ran to avoid the bullets, moving in zigzag formations to avoid being shot. This caused the team to be creative to get the running zombies. Ashley had to take the time to fire a concussion round to knock one it another before finishing them off with a burst of fire.

The others were taken down by methods that are more creative. Legion used an electrical chin overload to stop two of the running husks before gunning them down with a Geth Pulse Rifle, while Trex fired off a mine right in front of the cybernetic undead. The explosion was the backdrop to another husk being smashed into the rock due to Kaidan's biotic push as three of the cybernetic zombies just got closer to the combat squad. They would not make it far when Ashley opened fire, causing two to explode as a third leapt into the air towards Jane. Jane quickly responded with a shotgun and with a 'bang' sent the zombie flying back with a hole in its midsection.

With the dead staying dead, Jane directed Legion-VII to examine the spikes as Jane and Kaidan examined the robotic zombies while Trex and Ashley stood guard. It only took a few seconds for Kaidan to gasp out loud, "There is nothing organic left. All of it has been replaced by cybernetics. Even the skin and bone is synthetic."

"To go that far is disturbing," Trex commented stated as he kicked over a corpse. "Why would they go that far to have shock troops?"

"I'm more concerned about where they got the material to make these things, LTs, ma'am," Ashley stated in a calm tone that had her all but salute to them.

"It's Jane, Ash," Jane Shepard sighed as she looked at Legion as it clicked out its report.

"Shepard-Commander, the fluid from the victims is gathered within these spikes and nanoprobes repurpose the body into shock troops."

"Creating these husks as disposable troops that are raised from the dead much like the story of the Dragon's Teeth," Jane stated as she opened a transmission. "Nihlus, Anderson, do you read me. I'm sending you tactical data on new targets of interest, Codename 'husks' and 'Dragon's Teeth.'"

"_I have seen them all over the spaceport, I'm taking them out now_," Nihlus reported over the comms. The group soon heard the explosions from a Krysae Sniper Rifle off in a distance while Anderson reported the situation.

"_We've been able to reestablish communication with the ground forces on the planet and passed on the information as well as your codenames Commander. The General was surprised to find out the spikes were more than just physiological attacks. It apparently takes a few hours for our dead to become husks. He is issuing a destroy on sight order for all husks and Dragons Teeth_."

"I read you Anderson, Trex and Legion-VII will begin implanting the explosives now," Jane reported as Trex developed a big grin under his helmet as he went to work planting explosives. "We'll meet up with Nihlus at the spaceport, Jane out."

Jane cut transmission when she heard a muffled sound from one of the containers up ahead. Knowing they were not alone, Jane looked at Ashley and Kaidan backup, while Legion-VII remained in support as Trex continued to plant explosives. They came up to a door to see it was locked. Jane quickly got to work on the lock, and she soon unlocked the doors. She opened them, ready to fight when she heard a woman yell, "Don't shoot, we are unarmed."

The group lowered their weapons to see two human scientists and half a dozen farmers, a mix of human and small krogans. One of the scientists, a male stepped forward, requesting they close the door, "Hurry, close the door before they get us."

"It's alright, we've taken care of them, you're safe now," Jane reassured the group who sighed in relief.

"Thank you; I don't know what would happen if you hadn't come through," the female scientist bowed. "My name is Dr. Warren and I was one of the scientists here at the dig site with my assistant Manuel here. We were examining the site when the attack came. The marines that were guarding us got the nearby farmers and us to safety, as they held off the darkspawn. They gave their lives to insure we got to safety."

"No one is safe; the end of the Confederation, the Council, and all life is upon us. Soon only ruin and corpses will remain," the scientist Manuel practically screamed when a disgruntled krogan gently picked up the man and set him aside.

"Okay that's enough doom and gloom from you, we don't need another insane rant," the krogan stated as put him to bed.

"Is it insane to see the future and to declare that doom and destruction are rushing towards us? To understand that there is no escape and that there is no hope for anything? No, I'm not mad. I'm the only sane man to see that we've awaken the beast that will kill us all," Manuel stated with a quiver.

"Beast? You mean the darkspawn?" Kaidan asked with a raised eyebrow as Manuel shook his head no.

"The darkspawn are only a sample of things to come. Something far worst comes from the shadows to show how insignificant we all are," Manuel quivered before he was dragged to his room by the krogan to be out of sight, out of mind.

Seeing Manuel pushed out of the conversation, Dr. Warren took over to state, "Sorry about that, Manuel has a brilliant mind but it has always been unstable. It's only been made worst since we found well…"

"You mean the Beacon?" Jane asked.

"Yes," Dr. Warren stammered as she looked at the farmers nervously but just could not stop as she blabbed. "It was an amazing discovery. An intact Prothean Beacon, who knows what secrets, lay hidden within it."

"Which probably means that was why they attacked us," one of the farmers grumbled.

"And you are?" Jane asked the farmer.

"I'm Cole, we were in the field when we were herded to safety, we saw the huge ship descend towards the spaceport when we ran to safety," Cole told the marines before him. "It was admitting some kind of signal as it descended. Sounded like the shriek of the damned. Only, it was coming inside our head. It almost made it impossible to think."

Jane looked at Kaidan to ask, "Do you think it could have been jamming technology?"

"I don't know any that would admit that kind of frequency, though I also don't know what else it could be," Kaidan stated.

"We'll soon find out once we get closer. We should go," Jane advised, ready to leave.

Though they stopped, as one of the farmers looked nervous as he turned to Cole to state, "Hey Cole, we are just famers. Maybe we should give them the stuff."

"Geez Blake, you need to learn to keep your mouth quiet," Cole advised with snarl.

Jane however went into interrogation mode as he stated, "You want to come clean, Cole."

"Some of the people at the spaceports were running a small smuggling ring. It was nothing major. In exchange for a small cut of the profits, we allow them to store packages in our shed."

"Smuggling is illegal on Eden Prime, and if any of its military tech, I have the right to arrest you for five to twenty years depending on the level of technology," Ashley accused them. "In fact, I should arrest you right now."

"No one arresting anyone right now, especially if Cole would be kind enough to tell me who his contact is and hand over any tech he has on hand."

"Yes, and hang on," Cole nervously swallowed as pulled out a box and opened it to show it was an asari shotgun, the Disciple.

She pulled-up the oddly shape, yet pleasing white and purple shotgun to her eye level. It was a small shotgun that was fitted for the all female asari race. A race that had emphasized their soldiers was trained as commandoes over simple soldiers. And like their commandoes, the shotgun was small, but a powerful long-range weapon Jane wanted it as she traded the asari shotgun for her old model. After she swapped her shotguns upgrades using a workstation nearby. She was done within seconds thanks to her omni-tool program and user interface.

Cole smiled as he stated, "Normally I had no idea what were in the packages, but when the attack happened I decided to look to see if I could find something to fight the darkspawn. I don't know how Powell got his hands on an asari commando shotgun, but it was useful. I just wish it were a pistol. It would have been more useful."

"Powell, is that the name of your contact?" Ashley asked with a glare.

"Yes… he's one of the dockworkers if he's still alive that is," Cole admitted.

"Thank you for the information, now we need to go," Jane ordered the group.

"Good luck Commander," Dr. Warren waved goodbye.

"I don't need luck, I have a bad ass team," Jane smiled as Trex set off his bombs, destroying the Dragons Teeth with great pride and joy.

**Location: Exodus Cluster/Asgard System/Eden Prime/Space Port**

**Human Date: February 3, 2183**

At the small spaceport, Nihlus heard the explosion off in the distance as he approached the main site, where he heard gunfire. Nihlus looked ready as he brought his shotgun up, only to lower his gun as he exclaimed in shock, "Saren?"

Standing in the center of the bodies of several darkspawn was a silver colored turian in silver armor with a black cloth over the back half of his head. An M-77 Paladin with a power amplifier was in his right hand of his prosthetic arm that was like his entire body, cybernetically modified. There were enough enhancements to be able to lift up the heavier, more powerful assault rifle, the M-78 Revenant Assault Rifle on his back. Nihlus was internally glad he did not go for the heavy warlord's machinegun as he turned towards Nihlus. The scars of his previous battles glowed along his cybernetic jaw and cybernetic blue eyes as he stared at his fellow SPECTRE.

He moved with power as he spoke in a clear, powerful voice that sent shivers through the turian's entire body, "Nihlus."

Saren moved closer to the younger turian as he demanded answers, "What are you doing here Saren? You're not allowed into Confederation Space since the incident and your vocal anger against the humans."

"The Council sent me in case the humans and their allies back track on their agreement," Saren stated as he patted the back of Nihlus's armor. "A good thing too considering how everything fell apart."

Nihlus nodded in acceptance as he looked to the burning spaceport up head, "We weren't expecting the darkspawn to return as someone's weapon. The situation is bad."

"Don't worry, I have everything under control," Saren stated as he turned to face Nihlus just as a small grenade he planted went off, firing his shields and internal systems.

"What in the spirits has happen," Nihlus turned to see Saren with his pistol pointed at him.

"Sorry Nihlus, but I cannot let you stop the return of the Reapers," Saren whispered before he pulled the trigger.

**Location: Exodus Cluster/Asgard System/Eden Prime: Team 2**

**Human Date: February 3, 2183**

Over the hill towards the spaceport, Jane and her team was moving with caution as they approached the spaceport. That was until they heard a gunshot and quickly went over the hill to see the spaceport off in the distance, surrounded by corpses of darkspawn and husks, as well as two shrieks that decloaked over a body that looked badly damage. Ashley took out a sniper rifle and looked to her commander for conformation. Jane only gave a nod and with pinpoint accuracy, Ashley took out the two darkspawn in rapid session.

That was when she heard a roar and looked up with her scope to see something massive. She lowered her gun as she beheld in awe a massive squid like ship as it rose off the ground. "What was that?" Kaidan asked in fear.

"That's the ship from earlier. Looked at the size of that thing," Ashley muttered.

"I would estimate that ship to be two kilometers tall. The drive core needed to land and take off on an average gravity world must be massive and really advanced," Legion-VII remarked.

"We'll need a shit-load of explosives to destroy that ship," Trex added as he checked his guns.

"Well it's getting away, lets worry about it later," Jane stated as she directed the group downhill to the spaceport.

They continued past the grassy field and up the ramp to see the corpse of a turian, that had been badly mutilated, yet still recognizable body due to the armor. "Commander, it's Nihlus," Kaidan pointed out.

"Well he's definitely dead, the darkspawn really tore the turian to pieces," Trex examined the body while Legion-VII pointed its gun into the crates.

"Shepard-Commander, this unit is picking up movement," Legion reported and the others swiftly pointed their guns towards the crates.

That was until a dockworker came out yelling, "Wait, don't shoot, I'm unarmed."

Jane lowered her gun with her team following suit, "Sneaking up on us could have gotten you killed. Don't do that."

"Sorry… i-it-it's just those m-mo-monsters got me scared," the human male stammered in fear. "My name is Powell; I was a dockworker when those things attacked. I'm the only one left. They killed everyone."

"I'm sorry for your loss," Jane said sadly. "How did you escape death?"

Powell sighed in acceptance as he laid his hands onto, "I was hiding in one of the crates, sleeping on the job when the attack happened."

"You survived because you were lazy?" Ashley snarled as the man nodded, 'yes.'

Jane now felt even sorrier for the man as she stated, "If you hadn't been sleeping in, you would have died too."

"I guess, but it doesn't stop me from hearing their screams," the man added with a quiver. "At least their deaths were quick and they weren't betrayed like the turian over there."

"What are you talking? Wasn't Nihlus killed by the darkspawn?" Trex asked in a growled.

"No, he was killed by another turian," the human said quickly. "The turian, Nihlus called out the other turian by name… um Saren I believe he said. And when Nihlus turned his back on him, he shot him and then ordered those monsters to secure the site."

"Saren, as in Saren Arterius?" Jane asked with a growl.

"I… I don't know, he never identified himself by his last name," Powell stammered out.

"Did the turian suspect unit have the following identifiable characteristics: silver skin, implants along the body and glowing blue eyes," Legion-VII asked in clicks.

"Yeah, that sounds like the turian," Powell admitted.

"Great, it's the phyjack Anderson warned us about, wonderful," Trex growled behind his helmet.

"Um, Ma'am and LTs, who is Saren Arterius?" Ashley asked.

Jane looked at the others before she gave Ashley Williams an answer, "Saren Arterius is a turian SPECTRE for the Citadel Council. He is one of their best blacktops and assassins out there, as well as black listed from entering Confederation space, mainly due to his remarks against humans and his sabotage of a joint operation that he tried to blame on our commander."

"According to digital records, Saren-SPECTRE's male creator was killed during the Human Turian War, and his biological unit sibling died in Confederation space years later," Legion-VII added.

Jane nodded at Legion-VII's additional comment before stating, "And if he is controlling the darkspawn, then we'll need the Council to stop him."

"That maybe difficult as they not going to take the word of a smuggler," Kaidan pointed out as they turned towards Powell.

"W-wait I'm not…" Powell tried to stammer an answer but Lieutenant 1st Class Ashley glared at him to shut.

"Don't deny it, your friends gave you up," Ashley told the man. "So I suggest you keep quiet, or I'll arrest you right now," Ashley threatened the man, and he quickly shut up.

"Did he have a chance to have his armor camera record Saren?" Jane asked Legion-VII.

"Negative Jane-Commander, all of Nihlus' equipment was fried and his hard drive was purged to the point it will take weeks to recover, if it is possible to save."

"And it looks like they did the same with the camera's around the spaceport," Trex pointed to the busted cameras.

"Great, we have no evidence that Saren led the attack and the Beacon is probably taken off planet," Jane grumbled.

"That may not be true," Powell nervously stated, to gain their attention. "The Beacon was taken down to the tram station. It could still be there if you hurry. And as for evidence, I may have a solution." Powell then pulled a large object covered by cloth, and he pulled the cloth down to reveal a glowing green crystal with black cybernetics across the body.

"Is that a Ghosting Crystal?" Kaidan asked.

"We had an accident at the dock where a crate of Ghosting Crystals fell and the crate busted open. It destroyed all but one of the crystals. I found the single crystal and reported that all the crystals were destroyed. I was planning to sell it but you'll need it more than I do," Powell stated as he handed over the crystal.

"You may have just won your right to walk away free," Jane stated as she put the green crystal across the body and activated it.

A green glow formed around the body as it absorbed his brain neurological electrical currents to form and download the person's personality and memories into its matrix. The green glow swirled away from the body into the crystal and a ghostly image of Nihlus came from the crystal. "Where am I, why is everyone so much bigger than I am?"

"You were killed Nihlus. Do you remember what happened?" Jane asked.

"I remember everything. I remember seeing my friend Saren in the middle of the field. I remember letting my guard down. I remembering him planting a device that overloaded all my electronics, and I remember him killing me," Nihlus stated with an open mouth.

"I'm sorry Nihlus, we will make sure Saren will be brought in to answer for his crimes," Jane stated sadly.

Nihlus nodded for a moment before he developed a bewildered look, "Why is everyone so much bigger than I am?"

Jane almost cried as she stated, "I'll tell you when we need you," before she deactivated the crystal, putting the neural copy of Nihlus to sleep.

With the crystal secured, Jane rose up to state, "We need to find the Beacon and stop Saren."

"Take the tram, it's the only way there," Powell pointed out before he looked down. "I can't stay here. I need to be away from this place."

Powell soon disappeared into the crates, hiding again as the team approached the train tram with caution, only to be fired upon by darkspawn waiting on the other side, lead by a grunt biotic. The group quickly ran for cover as it threw a biotic warp at them. It missed as Kaidan responded by overloading its shield just before Ashley hit the creature three times in the head for a kill. As the grunt fell, Trex fired his M-37 Falcon into the crowd to cause confusion and panic, while killing a goblin that tried to summon an attack drone. The attack drove three of the darkspawn together for Legion-VII and Jane to eliminate them. Legion-VII froze the one in the middle with a cryo blast while Jane fired off a fireball that caused an explosion that took out all the darkspawn.

Jane stood proud, thinking she had won until she turned her head slightly to see movement coming from the train tram. "Oh shit!" Jane yelled as she crouched behind a crate just before a loud bang was heard.

The others ducked as well, far enough to be protected but high enough to see what it was. They began to quake as walking towards them was a giant, armored darkspawn known as an ogre. It was a large muscular beast similar to the qunari, with long bull-like horns and the ability to crush people with its bare hands. A beast strong enough to carry a cannon large enough to be put on an M-35B Mako, it was aimed right at them. The entire team ducked down as it opened fire in three bursts, causing metal shards to shoot up as their defenses barely held together.

It was all the motivation that Trex needed as he pulled out three different grenades. Trex threw a sticky grenade onto the cannon, and only rose again to throw an inferno and polonium grenade. The three grenades combined to create an explosion large enough to damage the gun. Trex gave a yell of victory until he was forced to duck when the beast was still able to fire his gun and destroy the container Jane was hiding behind, spilling its contents on the ground, as Jane lay on the ground, motionless.

The others were pinned down again, as the ogre pulled out a second weapon that resemble a larger version of a Geth Spitfire used by giant Geth Primes, a heavy, fast repeating machinegun. The group remained down as bullets were digging deep into their cover as Jane recovered to see in front of her was an Human System Alliance M-560 Hydra, a rocket launcher designed to fire a burst of rockets with a single pull of the trigger. A weapon meant to be delivered to a heavy squad and one Jane wasted no time grabbing before she ran towards the ogre. She took aim for a second before she opened fire. A large number of missiles flew from her gun and impacted on the beast, killing the ogre in a fiery explosion as chunks of burning flesh flew in every direction.

Jane sighed in relief as she drop the empty launcher onto the ground. She looked at her fellow soldiers to state, "Let's go."

The group nodded as they rose up and ran down to a walkway and towards a large platform that was the tram. Jane quickly activated the tram once her entire team was aboard as it rode towards the spaceport. Off in a distance they watched an army of darkspawn led by ogres and snappers, giant snapping turtle darkspawn that reminded them of krogans except they had a shell as hard as diamond on their back. They were meeting the Confederation army of soldiers accompanied by giant walkers Geth Armatures, the larger Colossus, the tall, three eye Geth Primes with Spitfires and heavy mech suits with machine guns and cannon known as the Atlas Mark II. All the while being led by CAW vehicles.

Flying into the horde was A-61A Gunship and M-44B Hammerhead, guns blazing. The gunships flew overhead, firing missiles and bullets at the darkspawn below while the M-44B hover tank went deep in enemy lines with the turret on top fire homing missiles as its mini turrets cleared the way. A few would not make it, but most got out of the way for soldiers led by the M-35B Mako main weapons backed by its bigger brother, the M-53A Varren Tomkah. A heavily armored six-wheel tank fired it dual main cannon to kill a snapper while a wave off missiles fired from the guns hit the horde.

The squad watched the combat with great interest as they headed to the spaceport, not realizing that the army was a distraction for John's squad and unexpectedly their squad as well.

**Location: Exodus Cluster/Asgard System/Eden Prime: Team 1**

**Human Date: February 3, 2183**

Over a flowing river that led to a large satellite installation, stood a bridge that was the only accessible on foot and one that John's team approached with caution. While the human and elf approached with caution, the bulky krogan took the young, impressionable quarian under his wing as he taught her a shotgun trick. "As you can see, once you master this pump and lever trick, you'll be able to reload quickly with just a flick of your wrist," Wrex told the young woman with a smile.

"Wow, and you learned this during your travels," Tali said in awe. "It must have taken you years to learn that trick."

"Oh the trick is easy to learn, it just take a long time to figure out how to hide it from others. I learned it during my mercenary days before I became the head boss of my people," Wrex added with a smirk.

"It must have been an exciting life," Tali said in awe.

"Well it wasn't boring as leading the krogans, that's for sure," Wrex laughed in excitement. "Ah, the good old days, when I explored the galaxy on others credit chips instead of sitting all day listening to political bull crap. (Sigh) I miss fighting on the frontlines."

"Well, good news, we're here to fill your stomach with blood. We are at the bridge and my HUD picked up movement in the water," John pointed out.

"If it's like the previous war, then it is likely darkspawn hanar called stingers are in the water," Wrex grumbled.

"I can also see goblins and vrogs have taken control of the base's defenses, including defense turrets and combat drones," Velanna stated as she used her omni-tool as binoculars with the screen focusing on the image. Only to see the goblin and vrog darkspawns spot them as the automated turrets turned towards them.

"Shit!" Velanna yelled as she and her team ducked behind cover just before the turrets opened fire.

Mass Effect rounds and the occasional practical plasma laser tried to penetrate their cover. John knew the defense drones were being prepped as they spoke, so he yelled out, "We need to get to the facility, now!"

"No we don't," Tali yelled out. "I can hack the facility from here using its wireless telecommunication. I just need more time then I would need in the facility since it will not be a direct link."

"How long will it take?" John shouted through the sound of gunfire.

"At least ten minutes!" Tali yelled back. "Maybe fifteen."

"Fine then, hold the line for the Ensign!" John ordered as he pulled out his M-96 Mattock to shoot at the darkspawn behind cover.

Velanna followed suit with her N7 Valliant, taking pot shots at any darkspawn she could hit. Both of them combined were able to overwhelm the darkspawn's shields before killing them but none of them where the darkspawn controlling the defense satellites. Moreover, they never would get a chance to attack the darkspawn controlling the satellite as the first wave of stingers arrived. The black, jellyfish creatures wasted no time jumping out of the water towards John's team, nor did his team waste time in responding with lethal force. Wrex was the first to kill his target with a shotgun to the body while the others followed suit.

John and Wrex threw grenades into the water to quell the numbers while Velanna used her powers to make the air in front of her toxic to any living being. Unfortunately, there were more darkspawn then grenades as a few made it past their defenses. One landed close to Tali, who gave out a surprise shriek as it began to move slowly towards her. Unable, to stop the hack, Tali tried to back away but it grabbed her leg and began to pull her closer to it. Tali was about to panic and try to use her shotgun when the darkspawn froze into an ice-sculpture.

Tali gasped in amazement as she looked behind her to see Velanna was in her demonic mod as a wave of demonic energy came off her, forming the shape of two horns and a long tail. Tali stared for a second, before getting back to work as Velanna growled, "You will not harm anyone for I desire that all you beasts die!"

Velanna wasted no time in her attack, turning the lake into boiling water as she flung rocks and boulders at anything that was darkspawn related. All the while Wrex whistled, "Damn, I forgot how powerful those pansy magicians are when they go all krogan berserker." Wrex smiled as Velanna summoned a school of leaches to start devouring what was left of the darkspawn in the lake. "How powerful is the demon entity from the fade she is fussed with."

"The desire demon Velanna fused with is on the level of a powerful pride demon, so very powerful," John added with a small smile.

"Good for we are going to need… oh shit Velanna run!" Wrex yelled but too late as a few missiles hit Velanna.

The elf fell onto the ground in pain and rolled over on her back as John ran over to examine Velanna. He found her shields were down, her armor was smoking and she was bleeding. Without a second thought, John administrated a shot of the miracle gel known as med-gel into her arm, sealing up wounds and stabilizing her body as she slowly rose up in pain. She wished she did not get up as behind John, dozens of automated drones were heading their way.

They were getting closer and closer, and she anticipated the floating, aerodynamic platforms would open fire on them but then they stopped midflight. They just floated there as the darkspawn tried to give it commands, when the platforms' turrets and drones did a one hundred and eighty degree turn to open fire on the darkspawn. The darkspawn were quickly cut down in size as the drones flew into the base to cleanse it of filth as the space satellites above moved into an attack position.

John said, "You did well Ensign," when the satellites opened fire with blue disruptor torpedoes and PPCs fired on the darkspawn frigates and horde below.

Whole fields were cleansed as the darkspawn population was eliminated while most of the ships were being destroyed. Several ships tried to escape but only two were successful. The two-kilometer ship that seemed to shrug off the attacks and an alien looking cruiser had not been fired on since the planet's life-sensors did not register any darkspawn on board, but other forms of life were on-board. Realizing he had a tactical choice, John opened communication. "_Normandy_, this is Captain John Shepard, I spotted a cruiser with a two kilometer dreadnaught trying to make its escape. I request you shoot it down before it gets away!"

"_This is_ Normandy_, don't worry Shepard, we see it and we're making sure it doesn't get away_," Anderson stated over the comm. as Team 1 watched the firefight from below.

They watched as the _CSS Normandy_ decloaked to fire four of its disruptor torpedoes into the ship, followed by its slower, but more powerful slug from its Thanix Cannon. The weapons hit the ship, causing it to spin. The ship returned fire but the _CSS Normandy_ avoided its main attacks while its shields absorbed the enemy ship's lighter attack from the defense guns along the hull. The faster _CSS Normandy_ began to roll around the ship, firing its plasma lasers across the hull to take out its defense turrets and breached the ship's hull. The _CSS Normandy_ then flew past the rear of the ship and made a steep turn around to fire its two red plasma torpedoes into the ship's engines. The resulting explosion destroyed the ship's engine as it descended to the ground.

Team 1 watched the alien ship crash as the _CSS Normandy_ made a victory lap over the defeated ship while John received his next set of orders, "_John, General Haliot, Martock is sending troops to secure the crash site. Assist in their recovery while we inform the Fifth Fleet the Defense Satellites are back under our control_."

John's team was on the move when he replied, "On it sir, over and out."

**Location: Exodus Cluster/Asgard System/Eden Prime/Spaceport**

**Human Date: February 3, 2183**

Within the large spaceport, the darkspawn stood attention as Saren stood in front of the beacon. His body was floating as his mind assimilated the data until he was set down. Drowsy, Saren looked at the darkspawn to state, "I've got what we came for, set the device to overload. I want it destroyed before someone else uses it."

A darkspawn vrog and goblin nodded as they got to work on the self-destruct as he heard explosions off in the distance and looked up to see the defense satellites were back in Confederation control. Saren growled out, "It's time for me to go. The rest of you beasts, hold the Confederation back with your lives. We cannot risk one of the humans or their pets use the beacon before it's destroyed. Snap too it."

The darkspawn quickly growled out acknowledgments as Saren walked over to an orb like ship and into its cockpit. He got in time to hear gunfire and explosions to see Jane's team had arrived. Saren sighed in annoyance as he closed the ship's cockpit as it rose up off the ground. As Jane electrocuted the last two darkspawn, she watched the ship escaped into the large, two-kilometer ship hanger before it rose up at speeds of a heavy cruiser. The large ship soon made a dash past the defense satellites towards the relay when it detected the arrival of the Fifth Fleet.

The Fifth Fleet was a large fleet lead by a variety of ships numbering over seventy-nine warships in total. Thirty-two of which were Terran and Far Child class frigates, sixteen were Garden and Genesis class heavy frigates, and another sixteen were Liberty class cruisers. The rest were heavier warships, eight of which were bulker version of the Liberty class cruisers known as the Enterprise class heavy cruiser. The leaders were kilometer long warships, four of which were wale like ships known as Monolith carriers and three of which were Unity Class dreadnaughts with a design similar to its smaller cruisers but with thicker armor and larger guns.

The two-kilometer ship identified by fleet silhouette as _Sovereign_ took one look before it turned at speeds that would sheer most ships in half as it flew away from the attack fleet. They did not even get a chance to open fire as _Sovereign_ made the jump to FTL speeds, escaping the attack fleet. With their quarry gone, the fleet headed to Eden Prime to take down any darkspawn ships in orbit while escorting the fat caterpillar shape geth Servant Class Drops Ship to reinforce the planet's defenses.

With their target gone, Jane sighed as she started her report, "_Normandy_ the Beacon is secured, but Saren escape in a…" while the rest of the team examined the Beacon.

"It's amazing, an actually working Prothean technology," Kaidan stated as Trex grunted.

"Looks like a glowing piece of junk to me."

"It wasn't doing anything like this when we dug it up, something must have activated it," Ashley stated as she moved closer while Jane acknowledge their orders.

Jane turned to see Ashley get closer only for the Beacon to activate and slowly drag the scared woman towards it. Without thinking, Jane rushed towards Ashley, grabbed the woman and flung her out of the way as Jane rose off the ground. Ashley tried to move in to help Jane but she was stopped by Legion-VII, "No Ashley-Lieutenant, this unit is developing a massive surge. Interrupting the download could kill Jane-Commander," Legion-VII explained with a worried click as Jane screamed in agonizing pain.

JAne saw blurry images, words burning, lives lost as she was assaulted by all manner of graphic images. She continued seeing such images until boom, the beacon exploded, sending her tumbling back as her team rushed towards the downed woman. Kaidan called for medical emergency as Ashley, Trex and Legion-VII tended to Jane.

**Location: Exodus Cluster/Asgard System/Eden Prime/Unidentified Ship Crash Site: Team 1**

**Human Date: February 3, 2183**

On the other side of the world, John's team was entering into a hive like ship as they saw CAW soldier crawl all over the ship. They moved forward, only to be stopped by an ensign that apprised them of the situation, "Sirs, we have secured the site, no sign of the crew. We think the ship was automated or they destroyed themselves before we got here."

"So there is no one aboard?" John asked.

"I wouldn't say that," as the soldier directed John to a pod. He cleared the pod to reveal it was a thin, tall alien that's face resembled Earth's amphibians with the top of its scalp shaped into fleshy horns. It was a salarian.

"And he's not the only one put in cryo. Some are criminals, some are citizens of CAW or the Council, and others were people born in lawless zones like independent colonies or the Terminus System."

"Why would they take these people?" Velanna asked softly as saw them opening a pod that held a young human girl taken in the recent raid.

"We think they were taking samples to experiment on possible darkspawn hosts and troops," the soldier replied with a grim face.

"Whoever is responsible will pay for this," Wrex growled as Tali nodded quietly in the background.

"Sir there is something else we need to show you," the soldier said as he led the team deeper inside, using telekinesis to push debris away until he lead them to another chamber filled with more pods. "Also unidentified, which is not unusual except for a few things. All of them are wearing primitive armor slash clothing and weapons."

"Define primitive," John ordered.

"Earth's Reissuance era," the soldier stated with a straight face.

"They were using weapons hundreds of years out of date?" Tali asked in shock.

"Yes, but that is only part of it," the soldier stated. "The second thing to note is that we found three male qunaris and eight male elves, among others."

"How that's possible? I thought the only discovered qunari and elves brought back to Earth during the Darkspawn War were female?" Tali asked in shock.

"Not unless our enemy found the darkspawn's homeworld and the locals are still alive despite our worst fears," John stated with a calculating gazed. "We'll need to get the CID in here, see if we can find the darkspawn's home world to wipe it out."

"What about the survivors?" Velanna asked nervously.

"From what our scans and hacks revealed, we determined they took over a thousand people from this unknown world, and only a hundred survived, as far as we can tell and ," the soldier reported. "They were systemically taken for tests and as they grabbed more people from the galaxy. We're just waiting for orders on who to wake up outside of those in critical condition."

"That will be up to our superiors, though Confederation and Citadel citizens can be awakened now while we cherry pick a few others," John stated as he looked at the pods. "Which of these people from the unknown world were scheduled to be processed next?"

The soldier pulled up his omni-tool to state, "The following people were going to process next: a redheaded female human in cleric cloth with a bow and arrows, a dirty blond human male in fur robes with a dragonhead staff, a blond male elf in crow armor with tattoos over his body and daggers, a black-haired female elf in green robes with vine tattoos on her face and a wooden staff, a white haired male qunari with no horns and a long sword, and a blond male human dwarf with a crossbow."

"We'll take them to the ship, and find out what they know," John ordered as he reported over the comm. "Admiral this is John, we secured the ship and we found some things to bring back."

"_Good work, we are getting Jane and her team on board. We'll come to you as soon as we can_," Anderson stated through the comm.

"Were they able to secure the Beacon?" John asked.

There was a brief pause before Anderson stated, "_The Beacon was destroyed. According to Legion-VII, the darkspawn set it to overload, but not before it downloaded a large amount of information into Jane's mind. She is in a coma right now and doc is working on her right now._"

John nodded slowly as he stated, "Understood sir, we'll see you when we can."

John turned off his communicator as he looked down while Velanna approached John with a hand on his shoulder, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," John stated with an emotionless face. "Just get to work; this is going to be a long day."

**Location: Undisclosed Location/Sovereign**

**Human Date: February 4, 2183**

Deep within the bow of the 2km long warship, strolled an asari, an all-female race with tentacles that function like hair and skin that is shades of blue or purple. This particular asari was one with dark blue skin in a black dress that showed off her ample cleavage to her advantage, especially in negotiations. Attributes she needed as she approached the throne Saren sat in as she gave a report in a steady, cold tone.

"We've identified the ship that hit the ship that carried our samples. It was the _Normandy_, a Specter class heavy frigate commanded by your nemesis, Rear Admiral David Anderson," the asari with a black hood relayed to Saren. "They have managed to secure the planet and free several of our test subjects."

"A problem, but not major one as we have a dozen more ships filled with subjects, though it would hurt us to no longer having those samples from Thedas," Saren growled. "What about the Beacon Benezia?"

"One of the humans, a Commander Jane Shepard may have used it," Benezia stated calmly, just as it set off Saren.

Saren growled and yelled as he lost his cool and hurled his drink towards Benezia, who shuffled to the side and allow the drink to hit the wall. She kept her poise as he growled, yelled and marched towards Benezia only to stop after he grabbed her face. Saren gave one more growl before he finally calmed down to think.

With a snarl, he said in an even tone, "This human and anyone who is with her must be eliminated."

Benezia only smiled as Saren let her go as he walked back to his throne, planning their next move as he continued to grumble his annoyance. They began to plan as the Galactic Darkspawn War has just begun.

**Done with another long chapter, didn't plan for it to be this long, but oh well. Hope you enjoy the story. **

**Author Notes**

**1) One of the major differences between the darkspawn and geth in original game is that there are biotics and mages in the horde, along with tech experts. However, they are not as powerful as implanted mages/biotics nor are they as skilled as expert technicians are, so their attacks can be overwhelmed by similar attacks. **

**2) Husks will be more dangerous as the darkspawn used advance Reaper/Collector tech from day one. **

**3) I hope you enjoy how Wrex acts in the story. He's going to be around for the duration of the story, so enjoy. **

**4) Yep, there will be people from Thedas in this story. Guess who?**


	4. Chapter 4: Morning Signs

Mass Dragon Effect 1: Shadows of the Past

Chapter 4: Morning Signs

**Disclaimer: I don't own Mass Effect or Dragon Age, great RPGs I worry yet hope Bioware will keep up with their story telling.**

**Beta Reader: Albert**

**Last Update: 5/30/2016**

**Location: Exodus Cluster/Asgard System/CSS Normandy/Deck 3**

**Human Date: February 4, 2183**

Nightmares, that was how she describe the sensation as dark images that she could not make out, even after all her years of fighting from one battle to the next. All she could understand was a single word that was repeated over and over again. A word she could not recognize as the world bled away to give way to a sterile medical room filled with blinking lights and holographic interfaces. Jane groaned as she recognized she was in the _CSS__ Normandy's_ medical bay and she was finally awake.

A face someone else noticed as a woman yelled out, "Doctor, Doctor Chakwas, I think the Commander is waking up."

"No, she has woken up," Jane groaned as she rose up to side of her bed with a throbbing headache that thankfully slowly dissipated just as a friendly face showed up in her line of sight.

"You had us worried Sheppard. How are you felling Jane?" Dr. Karin Chakwas asked as she examined her with a medical version of an omni-tool.

"Minor probing in my sorry excuse of a head," Jane answered with a small smile. "Nothing too serious, how long was I out?"

"About six hours," Chakwas replied. "Something must have happened to the beacon."

"It was my fault ma'am," said the newcomer as she came into the light to reveal that the woman was Ashley Williams, still wearing her armor filled with grim from the planet below. "When I got close to the Beacon, it activated and dragged me towards it. If I wasn't so clumsy, you wouldn't have had to save me."

Jane looked at the downtrodden lieutenant as she got out of her bed and put a hand on Ashley's shoulder, "You had no way of controlling it Ash. It wasn't your fault."

Ashley looked into her superior's eye, and all the self-pity washed away as she straighten up to give a thankful smiled while Dr. Chakwas took over the conversation again. "Physically you're fine, though I do worry about your mind."

The doctor then walked over to a screen and had it display Jane's images as Jane took a closer look. All looked normal for someone in REM sleep, except for the part Dr. Chakwas had highlighted, "As you can see, there was an unusually high amount of beta waves, which is similar to someone entering the Fade if they were a very powerful Magician or had used the Simulate Sleep Face Machine, aka the Dream Machine. However, since you're a psychic knight and you lacked a similar machine, then I have to assume the Beacon had downloaded information directly into your brain. Can you describe what you saw?"

Jane leaned back as she muttered out loud, "I'm not sure. I remember seeing death, destruction, but it's blurry, as if the images were out of focus and distorted. There were also words, but none of them made any sense."

"Hm… this needs to go into my report and we may need to take more detailed scans," Chakwas muttered out loud, as she took notes and deep scans. She was taking her last note when the door opened behind her as three figures stepped in. "Ah, Admiral Anderson, Captain Shepard and Lieutenant Commander Velanna," the doctor acknowledge them as her armored guests stepped in.

Stepping up to plate was a very stem Anderson wearing not his uniform, but a vested uniform. Jane was curious why Anderson was wearing his armor but did not get a chance to ask any questions, as the Admiral went straight to business with Chakwas, "How is our patient doing?"

"Besides the reading I told you about, she is going to be fine. Though I am concerned about the psychological effects will result from the visions downloaded into her mind," the doctor explained while John Shepard looked at his omni-tool.

"I've see you noted them in your report. Please submit this to high command and please don't discuss this with the rest of the crew. Wait until High Command decides if the information should be classified or not," John told the good doctor, who nodded in response as she was familiar with the routine.

"Will do Captain."

"Good, now can we speak to the Commander in private?" Anderson asked in demanding tone.

One Ashley recognized as an order as she saluted her superior officer, "We'll do sir. I head to the hanger to prepare for our guest."

"And I'll join her to make sure the awakening operation goes smoothly," Chakwas added before the two left, leaving the commanding officers alone.

It did not take long for John to let his stance slip a bit as he asked Jane, "Are you alright Jane?"

"I'm fine John, just trying to make sense of everything," Jane told her brother as she walked around. "How bad is it on Eden Prime?"

"Pretty bad Jane, casualties were high. Over three million civilians were killed, along with two hundred thousand soldiers and three geth server nodes," Anderson told the Commander. "Combined with the lost of Eden Prime's entire defense fleet and the severe damage of the space station, Eden Prime's whole defense network is crippled. The Fifth Fleet is staying in orbit until command can send in reinforcements."

"The only good news is that it could have been worst if General Martock did not rally the ground forces in time. And the confirm death of over a million and a half darkspawn and the destruction of a dozen darkspawn ships with a untold number of darkspawn," John pointed out.

"Still, too many died," Jane had noted quietly, before she asked the million credit question. "How did they get past our RCF and system patrols?"

"CID and CNIS (Confederation Navy Investigation Service) are looking into it. According to CID, they found Salarian's STG bugs used by the Council's SPECTRES, and sent a few computer viruses to gather our own intelligence before having them disconnected. Meanwhile, CNIS is investigating in the hearth of Council space and Eden Prime to see if they can find any more evidence of Saren's involvement

"You mean to say it was the Council's own paranoia that led to this attack?" Jane asked in shock.

"Looks like it sis," John stated with a shrug.

A shrug that caused Jane to groan as she switched subjects, "I take it Ashley William is going to be assigned to us."

"I've read her record, and felt she would make a fine member to the team. Especially since she is a N6 like Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko and an extraordinary marksman," John pointed to his sister.

"Ash is a good soldier, she deserves it," Jane stated with conviction as Anderson spoke up.

"Lieutenant Alenko, Trex and Legion-VII seem to agree with you when I asked their opinion on Lieutenant Williams. It is why I had her transferred into the First Battalion."

Jane nodded along as she turned to face her superiors to do what other soldiers often have done after a major defeat like Eden Prime. Questioned the future, "So, what's next?"

"I won't lie to you, this is not good," Anderson admitted. "Nihlus is dead, the Beacon was destroyed and we're about to bring one of possibly many pieces of evidence against Saren, their elite among elites. Something the three races on the Council will not be willing to admit, even with a Ghosting Crystal of Nihlus as evidence. Combined with the darkspawn returning as an interstellar army and threat, this could get very bloody, very quickly. Especially since SPECTRE Saren hates the Confederation, and loathes humans."

"Is it really that bad?" Jane asked.

"Its worst then that Jane," Anderson sighed. "A lot of aliens outside of the Confederation think our mutually built government that includes the Krogans, Quarians and Geth is really just us building an army to take over the galaxy. Most won't do anything about it, but Saren is an extremist. He sabotaged a joint mission and caused a massive amount of casualties in an attempt to discredit me."

"Why?" Jane asked in horror as Anderson sighed.

"He has personal reasons to hate us and we have reasons to hate his family. His father was the leader that led the Turian fleet we destroyed over Shaanxi during the Human Turian War. His brother, who officially had been declared missing, had actually committed suicide after our forces found him committing espionage within our territory without the content of the Council or the Turians. This attack must be personal."

"Maybe not," John stated as he stretched his neck. "If it was personal, he would have used that giant warship on the planet. That ship was insanely powerful. We recovered black boxes that indicated it destroyed the defense force and damaged the space station in orbit with one shot. The warship could have destroyed the colony from orbit without revealing the darkspawn or that Saren was their leader. No, he was after the Beacon, which means he knew something valuable was in it."

Anderson nodded in acceptance, "I feared that was the case." The Rear Admiral then turned to Jane to ask his question, "The doctor suggested that the Beacon downloaded something in your mind. Can you remember anything you saw?"

"I'm not sure how I can describe it," Jane admitted. "It was blurry, but I could make out explosions, death and destruction. I don't know who exactly their victims were, but I think their killers were machines."

"This needs to be reported to High Command, the President and to the Council," Anderson told his officers.

"And tell them what, that the Commander had dreams of death after being put through hell?" John asked out loud when Velanna stepped up for the first time.

"We may be able to show the Council and our superiors what the Beacon downloaded into Jane and maybe even focus the images for the Commander."

"How Lieutenant Commander?" John asked.

"Through the Dream Machine we have in the back," Velanna suggested. "I can enter through the Fade through mediation and assist Jane with my demon while the device records what the Beacon had put into Jane's mind."

Jane nodded in acceptance, "It could work, though I've never been to the Fade. Never had to deal with demons either thanks to the implant I got at a young age." Jane then cracked a smile as she added, "If I didn't have to worry about the prospects of viewing those dark thoughts with clarity, I would be jumping in excitement."

"Hm," Rear Admiral stated as he though it over, scratching his chin until he came to a decision. "Alright, Velanna, help Jane try to recover those visions the Beacon gave her. If it looks like it will be too dangerous, discontinue it. I consider her a lot more important than whatever the Beacon downloaded into her head."

"You got it Anderson," Jane nodded with a bright smile as Anderson nodded in acceptance.

"Very good, Cortona will keep watch over you as Chakwas is going have to handle our new guest," Anderson told the Commander, who looked back with confusion.

"What guest?" Jane asked in confusion.

"Some people that seemed to be in the wrong place and time," John told his sister before the Captain and Admiral left the two Commanders to their own devices.

**Location: Exodus Cluster/Asgard System/CSS Normandy/Deck 5: Hanger Bay**

**Human Date: February 4, 2183**

At the bottom of the ship, a large number of the crew were preparing for the worst as they stood around six pods John had picked up from Eden Prime. The entire ground team was there with additional security forces as they got into position. The closest was the one who felt she had to prove the most. Ashley Williams, the newest recruit to First Battalion felt she had a lot to prove, especially after watching her whole team die on Eden Prime. Therefore, she quickly took advantage of the weapons offered to her by switching the M-96 Matlock for what many call the assault sniper rifle, the M-99 Saber. A longer, heavier version of the M-96 Matlock that has lower fire rate over its higher ranger and power; the perfect weapon for a marksman as she readied herself for battle while her fellow human tried to calm her down.

"Hold your horses LT," Kaidan said as he tried to sooth Ashley's mind. "We don't know if they are going to be hostile yet."

Ashley responded with a glare, "That may be so, but we can't afford to be caught exposed again like… like E-Eden Prime. I would rather be safe than sorry that we didn't stop a hostile from killing someone else because we were too lax."

Kaidan frowned, but accepted her caution as he got into position as well while Adams worked over a computer console hot-wired into the device as his former engineer assistant, Tali helped in making the connections. Confident the pods had accepted Confederation's technology, he developed a small smile as he watched the Admiral and Captain walked towards him.

"Captain Sheppard, Admiral Anderson, the pods are stable and ready to be opened any time we wish. However, I recommend waking them up one at a time to be safe. It also give you time to can access the pod's databank information… which include personal information on the subjects listed by name." Tali reported.

"How?" John asked.

"I think the pods are equipped with neural implants that interrupt the subject's minds over several weeks. I'm uploading the files now," Lieutenant Greg Adams reported as Sarah came close with a specialized omni-tool used by communication officers to help.

"With this information, I can align the communicator's translated program to their language. As soon as they wake up, we'll be able to communicate with them through our omni-tools."

"Good, then let's not waste any more time," John stated as he looked at the ship's doctor who looked ready to protest.

"Captain, I still recommended against it!" Dr. Chakwas stated as she performed another neural scan. "In fact, I suggest we wait until we come to a proper hospital, like on the Citadel."

"Would it be dangerous for us to wake them up this early?" John asked as he looked over the sleeping human, elves and qunari.

"They'll probably be fine. A bit dehydrated but physical fine," Dr. Chakwas admitted. "However, if something goes wrong, we may not have the facilities to save them, even if we're a few hours from the Citadel."

"Understood Doctor, but we can't afford to wait," John stated as he studied the six subjects. "High Command said we have two hours to gather any more information on the subject before we are forced to go to the heart of Council Space, the Citadel. And this is one piece of information we can't afford to lose."

"I agree with the young Captain," stated Wrex as he walked up. "These phyjack are from the darkspawn's homeworld and were captured by Saren. If we are lucky, then they heard his entire plan and it will make my trip to the Citadel worth my time. So the risks out weight the potential troubles we'll face."

"Wake them up! We can't afford to let them sleep a minute longer!" John ordered the doctor, who looked at Anderson for conformation.

One Anderson gave as he supported the new Captain of the _CSS__ Normandy_, "It's the Captain's choice and his first command of this ship, for better or worst. I hope you're willing to take on the risk of such decisions," Anderson stated and questioned, as he looked right at a confident John.

"I am," John stated with conviction.

"Very well Captain Sheppard. We're beginning the awakening sequence, ETA five minutes," Chief Engineer Adams reported.

Tali nodded in agreement, as she nervously monitored the connections while John looked on, just as his sister was working on changing the galaxy, as they knew it.

**Location: Exodus Cluster/Asgard System/CSS Normandy/Deck 3: Medical Bay**

**Human Date: February 4, 2083**

In the back of the medical bay onboard of the _CSS__ Normandy_ is a small room designed to hold medical supplies and a special chair. A comfortable inclined chair that was connected to a wired helmet that seemed to glow green when used. It was device illegal to most citizens of the galaxy and one the few buy for research, a general search engine, and to help recovered memories. It's a device designed to enter into the mysterious dream world known as the Fade.

"So this is the Simulated Fade Sleep Machine, aka the Fade Machine?" Jane asked with a raised eyebrow. "It looks like something a nerd put together for a science fiction convention."

"I guess… I haven't notice," Velanna mumbled.

"I have, and I thought it adds to the quirks found in the world of geeks and nerds," Cortona stated from her holographic interface. "Are you ready to step into my parlor?"

Jane sighed as she lay back on the inclined chair as she put on her helmet while Velanna sat Indian style as she spoke quietly to Jane, "The device will pull you into the Fade where my demon and I will be waiting to guide you. That is if it's alright with you?"

"It is, thank you," Jane stated with a small smile.

"See you in the other side," Velanna smiled before she closed her eyes, and with a swirl of black and white magic, as they entered into the Fade.

Seeing her friend making the trip, Jane followed. She closed her eyes, as instructed by Cortona before she pulled a switch. A green light began to swirl around her as she felt pulled into her mind. She went deeper and deeper into her subconscious, pulling up faint memories and dreams. That was until Jane finally emerged into the floating, distorted world of green, brown and black. For the first time in her life, Jane was in the Fade and she looked around in wonder.

It was a world of constant movement as land masses floated as far as the eye could see. It was a world without the optical illusions of a static world instead of a world constantly moving. It was a world that seemed apparent, and yet it was more unreal then a world filled with illusion. It was a fantasy world that seemed to be within her reach as she watched the world rippled around her movements.

She felt she could do anything with just a thought as she voiced out loud, "This is so cool."

"Oh you haven't seen anything of the Fade yet," answered a beautiful voice that echoed across the green void.

Jane whirled around to see Velanna being held in a seductive embrace by a beautiful creature tethered to her. A tall, curvy creature, that Jane recognized from reports she read about Velanna. A creature that wore the elf's face, with its purplish white skin, long curved horns and almost completely bare skin.

"So you're the desire demon, Angle?" Jane asked as the demon chuckled in response.

"Yes, I am the desire demon attached to cute little Velanna to see what it means to be mortal. And I must say, it would be more exciting if she just let out more than she does," the demon said she tried loosen the girl's clothing with no luck as Velanna kept pushing the demon's hands away.

"Could you please stop that, it's embarrassing," Velanna stammered out with a blush as radiant as the sun.

Angle pouted as she let go of Velanna, "As you desire." Angle then flew up and around Jane, as she sang out, "Now that you are here, shall we head out or do you have a question to ask us? Like how often my host is getting it on with her Captain, among other things," Angle suggested much to Velanna's embarrassment and anger as a volcano was about to erupt if this continued.

"Um… I don't want to hear how much action my brother gets. Though I am curious about the name," Jane stated with a tilt in her head.

"Very well, my name is Angle for I like being ironic, if nothing else," Angle stated acrostically as she took note of an angry Velanna. Not wanting to cause her host to be too angry with her, she had quickly stated, "So, shall we head out to see what the Beacon put in your head, or just float here for awhile."

"Yes, let's go," Velanna strained as she slowly let out her anger.

"Alright," Jane said with an unsure tone. "What do I do?"

"Nothing," the two beings tethered together replied as they moved to either side of Jane. "Just let us take you in the flow."

Jane nodded in acceptance as she let the two take her down memory lane, seeing glimpses of her past. From parts that she loved, like the first time she saw a planet from the space. To parts that hurt her, like the day her mother told her father died trying to save the outer colony world named Mindoir. Velanna gave a squeeze of reassurance when they finally met the memories alien to her. It was the memories that the Beacon had put into her mind and it was jumbled mess.

The desire demon, Angle moved close to the mess to give some words of wisdom, "Their memories are incomplete, corrupted like fragmented data. You may not be able to see everything and since they are alien, you may not understand most of it, but I'll try to clear it up just for you."

"Do it, I need to understand," Jane told the demon, who nodded in acceptance with Velanna.

The paired souls soon got to work as the images began to become defragmented in her mind, to Velanna's horror and Angle's fascination. Not that it mattered to Jane as she was memorized by the results. She did not even hear Cortona report that she was recording her memories. All she could think was the images of death played before her as it quickly became obvious that the jumbled images were worlds being destroyed.

Through the corrupted fragments, she saw many different types of worlds, cities and even ships destroyed by things crowded in shadows. She saw synthetics and organic beings massacred by horrific monsters. All the while, worlds were displayed as they watched the destruction. The victims were called 'Protheans' and the destroyers were called 'Reapers.' The scene repeated over and over until finally she reached a planet so fragmented she could not tell what it was, but the word 'Conduit' came through before the squid like ship similar to Saren's ship appeared in front of her, forcing the three to jump back in shock as the imaged faded into memory.

The desire demon Angle was the first to regain her barring as she stated, "Well, that certainly got my heart beating. I think we just saw an empire fall to a galactic scale massacre."

"I… I have to agree," Velanna stammered in shock.

"And that ship on Eden Prime is tied to this Conduit and these Reapers," Jane said with a headache.

"But what does it all mean?" Velanna asked her commander. "And how do they all fit together?"

"I don't know. I am not an expert on extinct empires. Regardless, this needs to be reported to command… We need to stop it from happening," Jane blurted out as though it was forced through her.

"Then let us awaken," Velanna stated before she turned to Angel. "Thank you for the aid and service."

"Think nothing of it child, as I'm here to serve," the demon stated with a smile before she faded out of view, leaving the two 'mortals' alone, which Velanna wasted no time.

She turned to Jane, speaking an incantation as the Fade swirled around her. The world spun around her as she approached the world of reality. It would not be long before she opened her eyes into the blinding lights of the waking world. Without a moment to waste, she pushed off her helmet as Velanna opened her eyes. The elven woman rose from the ground as Jane jumped out of the chair, ready to face the world.

"Tell me you've got everything Cortona?" Jane asked as she landed on her feet.

"Yes I did. It's recorded into the data base, ready to be accessed and downloaded by your command," Cortona reported to her superior, who nodded.

"Save it for now, we'll show it to our superiors later once we get a complete picture of everything."

Cortona was about to acknowledge when Eliza's frantic voice reported over the comms, "_All hands, security alert. Captain John Sheppard was attacked by one of the aliens in stasis. Assume he is hostile. All crewmen are ordered to stay at their post while security forces converge into the hanger to subdue the prisoner. Repeat..._"

Jane did not need a moment to curse as she went to a personal locker for weaponry. She quickly found her weapons and armor, and picked up her two melee weapons and her M-77 Paladin Pistol, the only items she could equip herself at a moment's notice. With her weapon checked, she turned to Velanna to state, "Let's get to hanger and lend a helping hand. We can't have your boyfriend have all the fun."

"Aye Commander," the woman saluted before the two rushed off to the hanger bay to a situation that resolved itself a few minutes earlier.

**Location: Exodus Cluster/Asgard System/CSS Normandy/Deck 5: Hanger Bay**

**Human Date: February 4, 2183**

It took over twenty minutes to wake five of the ships new 'guests'; starting with one Leliana, a redheaded, pale-eyed beauty in priestly robes. She was a human that was an initiate to priesthood for a monolithic god known as the Maker focused around the Chantry, a religion similar to Earth's Christianity. A woman that helped others had a better wake up experience then she had.

Flashback

Darkness, oh how it brings dread was what Leliana thought as she remembered how it came to be. She was with a large group of templars (mage hunters), priestess and initiates like her who represented the Chantry. A religion focused around the one true God, the Maker. Her purpose was to meet with a wondering clan of elves known as the Dalish Elves to form a sort of alliance due to increase threat of darkspawn that have become apparent over the last thirty years. All the while looking for ways to convert them from their Polynomial gods, the Creators, to force loyalty and to deal with what Leliana would quote her Revered Mother as 'Heretics.'

Therefore, they were meeting with the representatives of the Dalish Elves and she was striking up with one of the mages, a bubbling black-haired girl named Merrill. She found the pale-eyed girl with hair braided into several different strands to be a joy. The girl's naïve wonder was refreshing to Leliana. However, that naivety came crashing down when the earth shook and opened up for the darkspawn. They were running away from something, but that would soon not matter as they attacked them anyway. Therefore, with her trusted bow, she fought back with the Dalish warriors and templars.

They were wining, until they met a new darkspawn force, swarms of insects covered them, freezing them into a world of darkness. She could not see as hands as cold as their souls lifted her up. She could not even squirm as she heard a growling, predator of a voice state, "These subjects will make proper test subjects. Take them away for storage; the darkspawn will need them for my army."

That was the last thing Leliana heard before she was put into something like an organic cocoon, entrapping her within something fluid. All she remembered were soulless yellow eyes as she entered into a world without dreams, light or darkness. A world of nothingness that Leliana could not remember as her eyes fluttered open to a whole new, alien world.

It was a world of metal and lights so strange they seemed more magical then magic. She felt her heartbeat bounce off the scale as an older woman with silver hair and clothing finer than most nobles appeared above her. She spoke comforting words as she calmed her distressed patient, "Hello, my name is Dr. Chakwas, a healer if you will, and you're aboard the _CSS__ Normandy_. May I have your name?"

The woman, unsure if this 'Doctor' could be trusted but she threw caution to the wind, "I'm Leliana, a Lay Sister of the Chantry," as she tried to raise herself out of the pod.

Only to feel sick as Chakwas helped her up, "Take it slow my child, you've been in cryo stasis for several months and…"

"Cryo what?" Leliana asked, confused by this 'Doctor's' term.

"It means the pod put you in a deep sleep for a long time," Dr. Chakwas explained to her patient as another voice advised caution.

"Doctor, I suggest you step back. We have no idea how people so primitive will react to what most call the modern future."

Feeling insulted, Leliana looked up to see who called her primitive to get the shock of her life as she pointed at the crew with a shaking hand as she stared at the geth, krogans and the single quarian. "Where am I? What is this place?"

"You're aboard the _CSS__ Normandy_, a Confederation Alliance of Worlds warship," spoke a man that approached her. "I'm Captain John Sheppard, commander of this ship with Rear Admiral Anderson."

"A ship? A ship from where? The Fade?" Leliana asked in shock.

"The Fade?" Anderson asked with interest while Leliana babbled on.

"How else can you explain a ship made of more metal then the whole battalion of Chivalry from Orlesian? Along with blinking, magical lights, walking, talking mechanical golems, and beast that would make the qunari look tiny."

"Ha-ha-ha," laughed one of the krogans she later would find out was the leader of the Krogans: Urdnot, Wrex. "Glad to see we are still the biggest badass in the galaxy still!"

Leliana could not take much more as she slumped, "I think I need to lie down."

"None of that," Dr. Chakwas advised as she helped the woman up. "After being… asleep for so long, your body needs time to adjust itself. Besides, I may need your help in calming down the others."

"Others?" Leliana asked she turned to the other pods to see five more, including one with a small, petite elf with black hair tied into a braid.

"Merrill!" Leliana called out as she rushed towards the pod with a burst of speed she did not know she could produce. It did not take her long to reach the sleeping woman. Concerned, Leliana turned to the crew to ask, "What did you do to her?"

"Nothing, she and the others were put into a cryo sleep," Dr. Chakwas explained.

Leliana then looked at the other pods, trying to see if she recognized any of them and found none were familiar, "Is this all of us."

"No," replied the mechanical being she later know as Legion-VII. "There are ninety-three more units on Eden Prime. An additional nine hundred units were killed before we took down the ship that was on the Primary Colony World known as Eden Prime."

Leliana looked down sadly, thinking of the people dead when she picked up what Legion-VII, "World? Do you mean I am not on Thedas?"

"Thedas! Ha, so that's where you from, good to know when we go darkspawn hunting!" laughed the second krogan, Trex while Chakwas took over.

"Technical you're between worlds right now, but in a sense, your right," Chakwas told the young woman.

"Why am I here?" Leliana asked as she tried desperately to wrap her mind around the subject.

"We need information," John stated bluntly. "We need to know who took you and who helped Saren rise an army of darkspawn that just recently attacked Eden Prime. Finding your world and eliminating the darkspawn would be at this point, icing on the cake."

"Darkspawn are here on other worlds, and someone is controlling them, but how?" Leliana asked as a tall man she thought was from the Ander Fields named Anderson came to speak to her in deep, understanding words.

"Let's just say that we live in a world with such advanced technology, it seems like magic, and someone is using it to such a degree that he is controlling them," Anderson attempted to explain to the lost woman. "I know, this is a lot to take in, but we need your help to stop a mad man from killing anymore of our people."

Leliana bit her lip as she looked at the people in the pods, trying to decide what to do before she nodded in agreement, "Okay, I'll help you wake them up, but I recommend you wake the qunari last. I've… never met one but I heard their people are like a avalanche, and one it took four Exalted Marches to beat back in their war of conquest."

"Are my people that violent?" asked the single qunari female, Sarah, who Leliana just noticed.

"You have a qunari serving on your ship? How?" Leliana asked in shock.

"Let's just saw the Confederation is very accepting of members within our multi-species alliance," John explained to the young woman. "Now let's wake your friends and once we do we can explain everything all at once." John ordered as Chakwas went to Merrill to begin the process.

She activated her glowing omni-tool, shocking Leliana further as she asked, "Are you a mage."

Chakwas just smiled, as she stated, "No, I was not born with any special abilities."

"Then how are you…?" Leliana tailed off as Chakwas gave a simple answer.

"Let us just say some tools will be beyond belief for now. Now let's wake up your friends.

End Flashback

Soon Merrill was the first to awake and the others followed similar reactions to Leliana, though a bit calmer thanks to her and later Merrill. The first to awaken following Merrill was a human with the dwarf gene, named Varric. A surface merchant who had light, auburn hair, burly chest left open from his brown jacket and an unshaven face without a beard. He wore a golden earring and coat that screamed classy storyteller, unlike the next person that awaken as he screamed rebel. Anders was a tall mage that was all too happy to appease his host when they revealed they did not know what a 'Templar' meant. The rebel with short, light brown slick ponytail reveled in acceptance, as the smirk appeared on his thin, unshaven square chin. A smirk that was not nearly as smug as elf with messy blond haired elf named Zevran. An elf Leliana recognized as assassin for a planet's organization called, the Crows due to his tattoos. The tattoo man was handled with great caution as they moved onto their finally guest, the qunari that databanks knew as Sten.

"Alright, Doctor, I want you to stay back for now, in case the subject is as dangerous as our guest indicated," John advised the doctor, who scolded but obey her orders all the same as stepped away from the pod as it activated.

"Trust me my friend, a qunari is as dangerous as tall as they are," the elf, Zevran stated as he eyed the room, especially the young, female qunari.

"We'll see," John ordered as Tali reported the pod was opening up.

With a loud swoosh, the front of the cocoon opened like a self-moving puzzle, showing the giant within. The man named Sten was a tall man with long, white braided hair with a stern face even as he slept. He was a powerful man with one noticeable feature that he lacked that Sarah has, long horns. Something Sarah noticed as she studied every ounce of the first male qunari she had ever seen. She found her face warming up as John came in close, followed closely by Legion-VII and Trex. All the while, Ashley watched over the other guests with her new gun with her biotic friend, Kaidan.

They waited as the sound of a hiss as the qunari slowly opened his eyes; taking in the world around him as he slowly rose up. He continued to examine the room until John stepped into view, ready to fight at a moment's notice. The purple-eyed qunari examined John, as he growled, "Where am I human?"

"You are aboard my ship, on which you currently a guest of after we rescued you," John told the qunari as he rose up to his feet. This beast of a man did not seem to feel the effects of being in cryo sleep for months.

John recognized the strong man as the qunari looked to his side and noticed something was missing, "Where is my sword?"

"We took it away from you as it is standard procedure for first contact with unknown factions," John told the qunari, who looked enraged.

"Return my sword, now!" the qunari growled at John, trying to intimidate him.

John was about to refuse the man when Leliana spoke up behind him, "Please give it to him. From the books I read, the qunari consider their sword as a part of their soul. To be without it, well, their life is considered forfeit."

John looked at Leliana before he turned toward a container that held all of their 'guests' weapons. All of them were tagged and ready to be returned if they proved to be non-hostile, or in this case, for peace. John picked up the sword to hand the sword back to the qunari. The effects were almost immediately calmed him down.

That was until John quietly commented, "It's not like it's much of a threat with something so primitive."

Leliana could not express her horror in time as the statement sent Sten in a berserker mood as he raised his sword high to strike at John. John only had a brief warning before he raised his arm in defense. Sten expected to cleave the man's arm in half but that was not so. Instead, he was shocked to see a blue shield protect John for a few seconds before it collapse. Giving the human sufficient time to provide the pod groups' second surprise as John fired off a biotic push to send Sten stumbling back. He stared at the human; not paying attention to the 'magical' voice as it reported he had attacked the human.

"So, you are a mage?" Sten asked the human.

"No I am not," John stated as his two trusted men, Legion-VII and Trex stood next to him, their weapons ready to fight a qunari whose rage began to boil.

"Don't lie to me!" Sten yelled as he rushed towards John with his sword raised high. Only to feel it get blown out of his hands by a loud bang.

With great shock, Sten turned to see the second giant creature, Wrex, who had blasted his sword away as he reloaded his shotgun. Sten glared at the scared krogan as he stated, "Oh, you got fire in your heart, I'll give you that. But I am also disappointed that you don't seem to realize how much shit you're in."

Sten looked at the krogan, then back to the three soldiers in front of him, as he soaked in the images with great focus. He looked pass the second krogan to examine the human surrounded by blue and the machine (geth) with the glowing right arm. Magic, or what he had perceived as magic unnerved him and he was deciding whether he should fight to the death or not. He did not realize that if John and Legion-VII did not stun him, he would be blown away before he made a step. All the while, the others from Thedas looked at each other nervously.

"This is not going to end well. With the all the magic these people flings around, I don't think our tall friend is going to surrender without a fight," commented the elf, Zevran as he mentally absorb everything in the room, including the guards that moved closer towards them.

As opposed to the tall blond man Anders who stated, "That was no magic."

"Are you sure blondie, it seems like the entire room is very 'magical,'" commented the dwarf, Varric.

"Yes," Anders answered with a twitched in his eye. "I can sense magic but it's not in this room. Whatever this is, it is not magic."

"Maybe it's beyond magic, like how pretty-pretty butterflies are beyond those wormy caterpillars," Merrill pointed as she spoke in a wildish accent.

"It beyond something, but according to the healer, she said this is all advanced technology from an advanced society," Leliana pointed as she looked at Chakwas being held back by the ship's security.

"Well regardless how advanced they think they are. They're going have to put the qunari down, unless something drastic happens," Zevran commented when something drastic walked pass him.

No longer willing on just stand by the sidelines, Operations Chief Sarah Sinclair made a choice as she moved to confront Sten. She hopped to establish a peaceful dialogue and to do so, she needed to get close to do. She did not get far when Kaidan noticed her and moved to intercept, "Whoa Sarah, don't get any closer. We don't need you to get close enough to become a hostage for him to use."

"But sir, I think I can talk him down," Sarah explained to Kaidan as his fellow lieutenant spoke up.

"Not worth the risk of putting our communication specialist in harm's way," Ashley Williams pointed out.

"I disagree ma'am," Sarah stated. "We know nothing about my people. All of us taken in by the CAW were too young to remember. He could provide valuable information on my race and maybe help calm the others we left on Eden Prime when we wake them. It's worth the risk."

Kaidan nodded in agreement, as he turned to Ashley to state, "She has a point."

Ashley sighed in acceptance as she stated, "Fine, but if he so much as takes a hostile step towards you, I will put three bullets into his chest. I am not about to lose another soldier. Understood?"

"Yes ma'am," Sarah saluted as she approached Sten's line of sight.

Meanwhile, the qunari was still weighing his option when he heard movement coming towards him with a steady step. Curious, he turned to see to his surprised, a female qunari walking towards him. Sten stared at the woman as he heard another voice yell out, "Operation Chief Sinclair, what are you doing?"

"I am hoping to end this without any bloodshed Admiral. Please give me a chance?" Sarah pleaded with Anderson as he stood, pointed his M96 Mattock at Sten.

The admiral sighed as he stated, "Okay and good luck."

Sarah nodded as she faced the qunari who stated, "Who are you and why are you with these humans and creatures around me? Are you Tal-Vashoth?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Sarah told the warrior who looked disturb.

"How do you not know the Tal-Vashoth? All qunari across Thedas should know what a Tal-Vashoth is," Sten practically yelled at Sarah, who looked as steady as a rock due to her training.

"Because I was raised by humans and we are very far from your homeworld. In fact, we are in the space between worlds right now," Sarah told the man who raised an eyebrow.

"Explain," Sten demanded as Sarah looked for a thoughtful answer.

"As I learned at a young age, seeing is believing. And I thinking there is only one way to explain it and show you," Sarah sighed as she turned towards her commanders. "Sir, can we show them what it means to be a galactic civilization?"

The Admiral and Captain looked at each other; trying to decide whose decision, it was when Anderson gave a nod of encouragement to John to make the right decision. John did not disappoint, "Eliza, erect a barrier between the hanger door, and open the door. Joker, back us up and get a good view of the planet below us."

"You got it sir," Joker acknowledged over the comm.

Who was then followed by Eliza, "_On it Captain_," before she worked her magic.

It was that moment Sten would revaluate his whole view of the universe when he heard the sound of moving metal behind. He turned to see that the hanger door behind him and open to reveal the galaxy to him and the citizens of Thedas. For his very eyes a content of Eden Prime three thousand kilometers away from the planet. His eyes never wavered from the green world as he asked one simple question, "What is this?"

"That is Eden Prime, a colony world for the Human Systems Alliance and the Krogan Clan Alliance, both members of the Confederation Alliance of Worlds," Sarah explained to the disturbed. "The planet is one of hundreds of planets we control, with a population of over three hundred million humans and five hundred million krogans. And this is not even the most populated planet found in Confederation Space."

A fact that was embedded into the qunari's head as he stared off to the world rotating before him. A world that was getting smaller as the foreign human, Anders gasped, "Were moving away from the planet."

"Yes we are," Kaidan had told their guest with a smile bringing the others out of their thoughts as the elevators behind them opened to allow Jane, Varric and a squad of soldiers behind them. They were ready to fight as Sarah closed the gap with Sten.

"We're not your enemy Sten and if you help us, we can help you, but first you have to trust us," Sarah begged the man who looked at the younger qunari before he put his great sword up.

"I will comply, but don't think I will trust people using such magic willing," Sten stated as he crossed his arms.

"This isn't magic, or your understanding of such things, for the only mages in our group is my sister and my second in command, Velanna," John stated as he pointed to Jane and Velanna. The later giving a big cheesy grin and smile while the other gave a nervous wave as some of the elves in the Thedas group stared in shock.

"Then how are you able to do all this?" Sten asked in shock.

"Very advanced technology," Sarah answered for her Captain.

Sten looked up confused as he started, "What do you mean?" and Anderson was the one to provide the qunari the answer.

"Think about it this way. Say, if you journeyed back in time to see your ancestors at a time before they had even developed a tool. Then ponder what they would think of a man with armor that protects him from most blows, a bow and arrow that can kill targets beyond their reach, and a sword stronger then improvised weapon he could find in the woods. They would think you used magic, just as you thought we did."

Sten raised eyebrow to demand the Admiral to, "Explain."

"We can do more than that!" Jane yelled as directed the soldiers to leave. "Come to the Mess Hall and we'll give you the basics of the twenty second century."

**Location: Exodus Cluster/Asgard System/CSS Normandy/Deck 3**

**Human Date: February 5, 2183**

In center of the ship's bow was a large room known as the Mess Hall. An open facility connected to close doors like the crew quarters, the elevator, the restrooms and sickbay. Although the people of Thedas did not know that as they sat around a metal table, enjoying a good meal produced from the Mess Hall's open kitchen that had enough supplies to feed an army. Food was slowly chewed up as they assimilated basic information given by Admiral Anderson, Captain John Sheppard, Commander Jane Sheppard, Lieutenant Commander Velanna O'Connell and Chief Operation Officer Sarah Sinclair, all of whom were in dress uniforms, despite Jane's grumbling. They learned about the Milky Way Galaxy and its worlds, the various space faring species and their powers, basic information on current technology, and how to use the codex to gain information on their own. Just in time for Joker to report that they were cleared to leave as the rest of the crew was manning their stations.

"So the stars in the sky are more extensive than anyone has thought, and I am the first dwarf from Kirkwall to see the beauty found among the stars," Varric stated with a small laugh while Anders smiled.

"Personally, I think it's great that mages have basic rights in the galaxy. The Chantry can learn a thing or two."

"Foolish," Sten added while Anders continued talking.

"I am very interested in biotics and the studies done on both biotics and mages. This could answer a lot of questions."

"I am more interested in these implants that make you immune to possession. If we had such things, people would be less fearful of mages for they can't be possessed," Merrill added with a sparkle in her eye.

Sparkles Leliana dashed by adding, "Maybe, if you take away the ability of using Blood Magic."

"What's Blood Magic?" Jane asked out of curiosity.

"You don't know what Blood Magic is?" asked Anders in shock, while nearly every Confederation crewmembers presented a blank face. Nearly everyone except an elf that looked scared.

"I do..." Velanna answered with a raised hand. "It's a power that uses blood to do terrible things like kill, torture, control and drain targets."

"So basically the three Harry Potter's forbidden curses rolled into one," Jane stated as John raised an eyebrow at the compressing.

"Harry what?" Zevran asked the group as he waited for an answer.

"A popular series of fictional books about magic before mages existed on our world," Jane explained to the ship's guest.

"Often the best source of information is a story. Its more enthralling then reality," Varric laughed as Sarah shook her head.

"Maybe to you, but to me, fiction is still fiction," Sarah pointed.

"Much like Blood Magic is… to us. I don't think anyone in the Confederation can use blood magic due to the implants that keep us from being possessed by demons. It enhanced some of our powers and limits others," Velanna added with nervous pitch as everyone stare at her.

"Hm, maybe you're people are not as foolish as I thought," Sten added as he looked at the crew with a raised eyebrow.

However, before anyone can speak, John growled at the small talk, "Enough with the questions, we need information on who attacked us. Can you help us?"

The six in the room looked at each other before Varric spoke first, "I'm sorry Shepard, but I couldn't remember seeing anything when my brother's caravan was attacked by the darkspawn before we were swarmed by insects."

"Same with me and my vanguard as we were scouting out a blood mage from the Tevinter Imperium," Sten reported while the _Normandy_ Crew looked more and more depressed.

A facet Anderson added to by saying, "That is what happened to me as well. I thought it was karma getting back at me from running away from the Circle. Although when I now think about, it was probably the blond elf that was there with me."

"What can I say," Zevran answered with a shrugged. "I was just returning from a… a mission when I passed him in some empty roads when we were swamped," Zevran quickly added.

"The same happen to me and Merrill at the meeting spot between Chantry and the Dalish Elves," Leliana added with Merrill nodding agreement.

Nodded long as the others despaired, just before the young bubbling girl brought the crew hope, "Yep and the only other thing I remember was the odd voice ordering us into those pods."

"Yes, I heard a similar voice ordering us into those… stasis pods, right?" Sten asked and the crew nodded as Anderson looked thoughtful.

"Can you describe this voice?" Anderson asked.

"Um… it made a deep tenor echo that seemed to be also high in pitch," Sten described with Merrill and Leliana nodded along while the other looked confused.

"Really, mine sound like a high class woman," Varric added with a smirk joined by Anders and Zevran.

"Well, I don't know about the woman, but from your description, the other could be turian," Anderson said with a thoughtful expression. "Eliza, please play a voice log of the last time me and Saren mixed words."

"_Aye-aye Admiral_," Eliza replied over the comms before a recording of a voice was being played.

"_You don't know how lucky you are Anderson. Just don't think it will hold out for you. For the next time you interfere with my mission will be your last,_ human. _Saren out._"

And with a click, Saren had hung up on the recording and the three members captured had a name of the man that captured them. "That's him, that the one. I'm sure of it," Leliana stated with glee as Anderson smiled.

"Got you, you son of a bitch," Anderson stated as he held up the Ghosting Crystal that held Nihlus last thoughts. "With this crystal and evidence supporting our case, we've finally got Saren in a place the Council can't push under the rug. I'm finally going to get that bastard."

"Sir, what about the woman?" Sarah asked the four members.

"We'll find out who she is later. Right now we have a chance to strip Saren of his rank as a SPECTRE, and we should take it," John stated with conviction as the members of Thedas looked unsure.

"What about us?" Anders asked for the group.

"For now, you come with us to the Embassy to act as witness and decide your fate for later," John told the six members that reluctantly agreed.

The crew was just about to settle when Joker said over the comm. "_Attention all hands, were about to hit the Mass Relay in this system. If you want an up close view of Citadel, I suggest you get to a window now._"

Anderson nodded as he rose up, "I believe this meeting is adjourned. If you want to see the Citadel, I suggest you get to the cockpit. Especially you two Shepards. I want you to make sure Joker doesn't take any detours."

Jane actually smiled as she practically jumped out of her chair, "Alright then, come on you lot, this is a sight no nubby should miss."

Six followed, unsure how spectacular this 'Citadel' had to be as Sten asked, "Do we have to take the elevators?"

Jane laughed as she pulled them in the elevator as she was followed by everyone but Anderson. Soon the elevator closed its doors and raced to the top.

**Location: Exodus Cluster/Asgard System/CSS Normandy/Deck 1**

**Human Date: February 5, 2183**

It had been an odd experience for the people from Thedas, as they looked in wonder at all the glowing consoles, as they were studied by the people manning the consoles as they made their way to cockpit, dropping off Sarah who went to the back room to work. They soon headed to the cockpit where Ashley, Kaidan, Trex Legion-VII, and Tali, all of them without weapons and in the human cases in uniforms, with Ashley having red stripes to indicate she was a soldier.

Jane practically ran up to them with a warm smile as she stated, "Hey guys, didn't expect to see you here."

"Well, I was off duty and I've never seen the Citadel, so I wanted to take a look," Tali answered with a nervous smile while the other nodded along, except Legion-VII who just shrugged.

"Same here," Velanna whispered loud enough for Joker.

"Then you arrive just in time for we're about to hit the Relay," Joker smiled as he flew in close to the Relay just before in blinding light, it was propelled through the network to their destination, the Serpent Nebula.

A gassy, purple nebula, the Serpent Nebula is a series of gasses that span several light-years. Treacherous to navigate, the nebula would be a dangerous place to go through if it hadn't been thoroughly explored. And through that exploration, the crew of the _CSS__ Normandy_ knew where to go to make a beeline through the gasses to an open patch within the nebula known as the Serpents' Window. It was an open field of face created by a Mass Effect generator coming from a massive space station tens of thousands of years old. A massive station known as the Citadel.

"Do these wonders never cease to amaze?" Varric had asked in awe as he assimilated every piece of it.

It was a massive ringed station with five long arms, making it appear to be giant starfish that can close itself into the shape of a flower bud if need be. All the while, it was being protected by a fleet of various warships that came in all shapes and sizes. The computer was quickly laying out the classes, most being turian, warships with long bodies and wings in aft portion of the ship resemble birds of prey.

Not that most of them noticed as they soaked in the Citadel until Ashley yelled out, "Look at the size of that thing!"

"I know, this space station is move impressive my lady friend," Zevran stated with a smile as Ashley shook her head.

"Not the station, that ship," Ashley stated as she pointed to the largest ship she had ever seen.

Over two kilometers long and wide, it was monstrous and resembled a four-point star, with an oval center and a glowing 'eye.' She was a monster of a ship and the crew could not count the number of guns along the hull. A well-recognized ship as Kaidan exclaimed, "That's the _Destiny Accession_, the Flagship of the Citadel Defense Fleet."

"That's their flagship?" Anders asked while Sten looked at it with a raised eyebrow.

"It is an impressive ship," Sten added while their pilot scoffed.

"Size isn't everything," Joker said offhand.

"Are you jealous little man?" Trex laughed while Joker smiled.

"I'm just saying you need firepower too."

"Then that ship is more than a match of anything we can produce," Legion-VII corrected Joker. "The _Destiny Ascension_ and her sister ship, the _Thessia__ Rose_, is a larger, more powerful version of the current Asari dreadnaught. Compared to our Unity Class Dreadnaughts, the ship is twenty percent faster and at least twice as powerful in other areas such as weapons, shields and armor. Combined with the use of kinetic and practical plasma weapons means she can engage a fleet of current warships on her own. "

"Is that analysis including the rumor that the ship is equipped with the Asari's new upscale PPCs, which are said to be a match to the ones we used on our own dreadnaughts?" Jane asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I do not base calculations off rumors," Legion-VII corrected.

"Well I don't think the rumors matter as the cannons on the ship look they can tear through any ship's barrier in the fleet," Ashley pointed out.

"Good thing they're our allies," Kaidan said hopefully as Joker gave a small smile as he came in close.

Then with a click, Joker opened a transmission as he flew pass dozens a ship with showmanship and expert skill, "Citadel Control, this is the _CSS__ Normandy_, requesting permission to dock."

"Standby for clearance, _Normandy_," Citadel Control reported and after a brief pause, Joker heard additional instructions. "Permission granted, transferring to Confederation Command."

Joker smiled as he acknowledged his orders, "Roger, _Normandy_ out."

Just before the _Normandy_ made a steep turn towards the docking rings, and in few seconds, the ship made it through the force field into a large hanger. Where the ship made its decent into one of the bays as the morning clamps attached to the ship, holding it in place. Joker just smirked as he stated, "We've made it."

"Yes, we did by the Maker," Leliana prayed as the crew planned to disembark.

**Finally done, and it took far longer then I liked to write out this chapter. I had to rewrite the chapter several times, and combined with a limited of free hours, it dragged on. Well, enjoy the story and please review on which of the Dragon Age characters can be left on the Citadel. I am not going to use all of them and want to hear which of the six you like the least; it can be more than one. **

**Also, to reviews, if you ask question, please note I only answer through PM. Therefore, if you leave a review as a guest without an account, I will not answer them. Just to let you know. **

**Author Note**

**A) I've been getting some questions on why the Confederation isn't the dominate power over the Council due to having the Geth and Krogans. Well for one, the krogans still have to deal with a birth rate of one out of fifty. The second is explained in a new codex entry Geth: Population Limit found in the Sentient Species section, which limits the number of geth.**

**B) Also added a new codex of Manufacturing Rights found in the Codex Weapons and Equipment.**

**1) Saren having access to STG data would explain how he planned the entire attack on Eden Prime. Which is a another reason the Council did not want to admit Saren was responsible for they would seemed they helped plan the attack, something a more savvy ambassador would hit on. **

**2) In Mass Effect cannon, the abnormal beta waves was not understood as a symptom of information being downloaded into Sheppard's brain due to galaxy's limited understanding of such technology. Moreover, since Sheppard was dreaming, it was easier to think of it a vision then a message from the Protheans. However, due to extensive research into how the Fade works, the Confederation and Citadel are less likely to dismiss it.**

**3) It was difficult writing the awakening scenes for I had several things planned but could not execute them right until I did the flashback with Leliana, allowing me a way to do the story. It was very difficult for I cannot imagine what they must living in a world that have examples to pull from, even if they are just theory/fiction. **

**4) Guess who Saren's allies in my review, I'll tell you if you're right, but if you guess wrong, don't worry, I'll be doing the revelation later in the next part. **

**5) Now we're introduced to the next set of characters, let's see if they can survive what comes next. **


	5. Chapter 5: Politics of the Citadel Part1

Mass Dragon Effect I: Shadows of the Past

Chapter 5: The Politics of the Citadel Part 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own Mass Effect or Dragon Age, those are owned by one of the few semi-good companies under EA, Bioware.**

**Beta Reader: Albert**

**Last Update: 10/22/2015**

**Location: Serpent Nebula/Window/Citadel/Customs &amp; CNIS Headquarters**

**Human Date: February 5, 2183**

The Citadel, the crowning jewel of the Citadel Government, was the center of power in the Milky Way Galaxy. No other place had such a large collection of diplomats, military leaders and politicians from both the Citadel Council aligned governments and the Confederation Alliance of Worlds. However, unlike the aligned governments that lobby for the Citadel Council, a portion of the Citadel was turned into an embassy for the Confederation when the Citadel acceptance the CAW is independent. Which includes its own spaceport and its own federal investigation service located within the spaceport, the Confederation Naval Investigation Services (CNIS), a group that butt heads with Citadel Security Forces (C-Sec).

Therefore, it was just another day for CNIS when a dark, silver turian in blue C-Sec armor started making noise at the local CNIS offices. The blue painted, white face turian frowned as he looked over the roughed, bricked face human in the black padded police uniform. The older human typed away while the turian with the right sided blue visor the focused on the human's face as he begged for information.

"Bailey, please, you're my only hope. My own investigation against Saren is producing little results due to the Council making everything this bastard touches top secret. But I know the Confederation have kept records on his movements. Combined with a lead I have, I can nail the bastard if you help me."

The NCSI agent Bailey sighed as his pale brown eyes looked up to Turian's deep blue eyes, "I'm sorry Garrus, I can't help you there. If I give you any information about our investigation, the Council could try to suppress it to make sure their prized SPECTRE isn't convicted."

"Then I can work this off the books, and-" Garrus started but was stopped mid-sentence by Bailey.

"No Garrus, I am not going to allow one of the few C-Sec Officers I like risk his career for a big maybe, especially since I have enough evidence to nail that son of a bitch!" Bailey exclaimed as he pounded his desk before he calmed down. "Trust me kid; don't put your career on the line for something that is not a sure thing regardless of what you do."

"I'll try," Garrus had sighed as he slowly got up and was about to leave when he gave away some parting words. "But tell me this Bailey, if one of your own betrayed your people, and your superiors didn't want to admit it. Would you let it go?"

Bailey was strangely quiet as Garrus left his office with a frustrated sigh. He had had a disappointing day until he saw a large, unique group passed him by. It did not take eyes as keen as his to tell him most of them were elite troops from the Confederation. Especially the two lead humans he had only seen on recruitment posters. However, the two things that stood out was that a portion of the bunch wore what appeared to be modern armor modified to appeal similar to robes and primitive human armor seen during their Medieval and Renaissance era. The other was a young, dare he say, cute, quarian that looked nervous as she walked through the Citadel without the visor her people usually wear with their helmets. He could not help but linger as he watched the group leave when he got a bleep from his comm. and had decided to take the call.

"This is Garrus."

"_Garrus, this is Chellick. Your target has just been released by CNIS. He's now in Chora's Den. If you want to talk to him, now is the time_," Chellick said through his comm.

"Thanks Chellick, I owe you," Garrus said with a smirk.

"_Don't thank me Garrus. If Pallin finds outs your continuing your investigation into Saren, he'll chew you out_."

"Don't worry Chellick, I've got this covered," Garrus smirked before he turned off his comm. and moved towards more crowded areas just as the large group reached Bailey's desk.

To say John and Jane's visit to the Citadel has been an experience was an understatement as walked the extravagant halls and architect that is the Citadel. A wonderful sight, but it would be the next few moments would decide if they would find the experience enjoyable or unbearable. They hoped for the later as they approached one of the head officers in the CNIS.

"Are you the Senior Special Agent Owen Bailey that Admiral Anderson told us to meet with our guest as he went on with Wrex and the rest of his senior staff?" John asked the man before him.

Bailey stopped his typing to look up with his steely blue eyes, "Aye that's me. You must be Captain John Shepard and Commander Jane Shepard. It is a pleasure to meet you."

The two men shook hands as Jane smiled, "On behalf of my blunt brother and me, we say the honor is ours and how sorry we are we've dumped all this on you."

Bailey laughed as he spoke in his deep New York accent, "You have only contributed slightly to my woes. That son of a bitch Saren, is the one that created the gigantic paper work I'm forced to work on after he attacked Eden Prime. So he is the one that deserves my full wrath."

This earned him a laugh as Bailey turned his attention to his other guests. He called up some Officers and Agents to take care of the next step as he addressed his next hurdle, "You must be the civilians liberated from Eden Prime. If you will please follow the Officers and Special Agents into the next room, we will get you registered in two shakes."

"It won't be as through as it was at um… customs?" Merrill asked with a blush as she remembered how through they were with hand held scanners, blood samples and so on.

"The scan your… um… engineer used to manufacture the fancy new armor we are wearing for our protection that fits us like a glove was not as intrusive," Zevran pointed out for the group as he remembered the surprise he got before they left the ship.

"Trust me, we are not going to be as crazy as those panicking Council members are," Bailey snorted as he smiled gently to the refugees before him.

"As long as it's not as frustrating as the fools at the gate," Sten depended.

"The VIs took care of most of the paper work before you came here, so it will be as painless as possible," Bailey smiled.

"Thank you," Leliana bowed before heading off to the side room, as she looked around in wonder with Anders, Merrill and an amused Varric, while Sten looked stern and Varric gave a cocky smile as he went to the next room, leaving the soldiers with the NCIS agent.

"So, security is not usually this tight," Jane broke the silence as the Senior Special Agent laughed in response.

"Not even close," Bailey laughed before his face tightens into a more serious, grim face. "With the darkspawn now attacking planets for the first time in thirty years with unknown technology, the entire galaxy is panicking. Moreover, the ones who are panicking the most is the Citadel Council. In the past few days, they've activated and created a dozen different security procedures for bio-infections, invasions and increased criminal activity brought by refugees and panicking citizens."

"Isn't it a good thing that they are taking security so seriously?" John asked with a raised eyebrow while Trex scuffed in response.

"Yeah, I so think it is necessary that I had to go through a more intense scan twice," Trex sarcastically grumbly as Ashely, Tali and Legion-VII nodded along. Especially Legion-VII as its subroutines wondered why they had to examine a sterilized machine three times.

"And now you see one of the problems with these new security implements," Bailey grumbled to the group. "Some of the officers are using it as an excuse to let out old grudges against others. Another problem is that a number of them are useless and are just implemented to make it seem like they are doing something while tripling the amount of work everyone has to do."

Bailey then sighed in response, "Just another day on the Citadel."

"Sounds like the Citadel is not the paradise the Council wanted people to think," Velanna quietly quipped while Jane looked thoughtful.

"What is the Citadel like?" Jane asked Bailey, who gave a thoughtful answer.

"I have to say it like patrolling New York on Terra (Earth), except bigger and more extreme on both ends despite the smaller population. At the top levels, there is the beautiful Presidium and the restricted Citadel Tower, where diplomats, important businessmen, lobbyist and even a few scientist get together to write policies that will affect the entire galaxy. Generally the safest area of the entire Citadel; and I can tell you from experience, they are a lot safer than the Wards."

"The Wards?" asked Tali.

"The five long arms attached to the Presidium ring structure," Bailey explained. "It's where most of the action on the Citadel can be found, with a collection of less cultivated bars, shops, arenas, warehouses, casinos, apartments for non-VIPs and strip clubs. It's also, where you can find drugs, gangs, organized crime and the dirty politician caught in such compromising position."

"Anyone we should worry about?" Kaidan asked.

"Well outside of mercenary groups slash gangs like Eclipse, Blood Pack and Blue Suns, I would have to say Fist," Bailey stated with a raised eyebrow. "He is a human that recently started a small syndetic and is trying to become big, so he is trying to make as big of a splash as possible to make a name for himself. The others I wouldn't worry about as they try not about to make a big splash in fear of C-Sec military crashing down on their heads."

John nodded and was about to speak up when the group taken by the officers returned with a marksman in diplomatic white armor, caring standard assault rifle and pistol, along with a Black Widow sniper rifle. A man whose blue eyes held amusement while short brown hair cut in a casual manner that fit his demeanor. He was a casual soldier that gave a curious bow to the group, "Captain John Shepard, Commander Jane Shepard. My name is James Reed and I was instructed to get you and your guests safely to the Ambassador's Suites before the pencil pushers can descend upon you."

Jane and a few of her fellow squad mates chuckled as John frowned at the Thedas locals, "Are you done with the paper work?"

"Yes and now were ready to see the rest of this Citadel if you don't delay us any further my friends," replied the cocky elf of the group.

"Then let's go, I doubt the ambassadors want to wait any longer for us dallying around," Jane suggested to her brother.

John nodded as he led the group to the elevators that lead to the Presidium.

**Location: Serpent Nebula/Window/Citadel/Presidium: Confederation Embassy Suite**

**Human Date: February 5, 2183**

It was a short ride for them to reach the beautiful Presidium, a large park with a lake and river running along the park. A park meant for the various diplomats and politicians to relax if they were not so busy within their own homes and offices. The largest and busiest was the one designed for the Confederation Alliance of Worlds, where David Anderson and Urdnot, Wrex waited to be called in alone as the rest of his senior staff was in another room. John and Jane were about to head into the diplomat's room when Wrex stopped them as they heard the local yelling competition.

"I wouldn't go in there right now. Several members of the ragging egos club are having a pissing match right now."

"I would say the three butt heads, the ass and Nakmor were having a pissing match, but I guess ragging egos are more diplomatic," James Reed joked, getting a few chuckles.

Hiding his own mirth, Anderson ordered James to leave and as soon as the marksman complied, he turned his attention to the group, "Well then, as you can tell the Council is not taking our accusations about Saren very well. (Sighed) The Counselors haven't change since the last time I've seen them."

"You've meet them?" Jane asked with a twinkle. "The Codexs don't mention anything about the current Counselors on the Citadel Council."

"Yes I've meet them, unfortunately," Anderson mumbled as he turned to the Thedas locals. "You've read the Codexs on the Council?"

"Of course we have my friends. We wouldn't want to wander in on the most powerful people in the galaxy without some knowledge," Varric stated with a smile.

"Then you four prove it by each of you telling me the three dominate races on the Council and the Council government as a whole," Anderson ordered over another loud scream from his ambassador.

A scream Leliana ignore as she was the first to speak up, "Well, the Citadel Council is best describe as a tight knit alliance between various governments who ban together to share their resources and military to protect each other from galactic threats. It is made up with at least seven different species. Nine if you include the primitive vorcha and batarian citizen living in Citadel Space. However, despite having so many species, it's only led by three governments, the Asari Republics, the Salarian Union and the Turian Hierarchy."

"The asari are an all-female race that can live up to a thousand years and are the dominate species on the Council and have a full democratic government influenced by their matriarchs and while officials to carry out Asari decisions," Merrill said nervously. "They are known to produce the galaxies best diplomats for the Citadel and are experts when it comes to this Element Zero. As a consequence, they produce some of the most powerful ships in the galaxy. Their army, while small due to being formed from their local communities, it is still formable. The asari take advantage of the fact that they are a biotic race to develop an army of elite troops such as commandoes and huntresses to win a battle. Which is amazing that an entire race exists as biotics, I wonder if other species can become either all biotic and mage and if so…" Merrill trailed off before Varric stopped her with a chuckle.

"I think that enough Merrill. No need to go beyond other topics other then the asari are like a poisonous flower, beautiful yet can be lethal to those that are not warry."

"Ironic for a species that is supposed to be about peace," Trex grumbled before he stiffened when Wrex snorted.

"It's easy to be the best diplomats in the galaxy when you have the biggest guns and the best killers to back it up any treaties," Wrex added while Trex nodded at Wrex's joke.

"I guess I'm next, and I'll talk about the salarians, the hyperactive frogs that only live longer then a dog by two or three decades and nine out of ten are male, making a female salarian very valuable. Enough so that most make up the leadership of their political intrigue of a government similar to monarchs of my, what do you call it, homeworld," Zevran added with mirth. "They are supposed to be the galaxy's best thinkers, and the leaders in inventing new technology such as the planetary shield generators, though I think you guys are giving them a run for their money." After Zevran got a few chuckles as he added, "They are also the Council's main eyes and ears with their STG (Special Task Force). Basically, their forces are a group of spies, saboteurs and assassins that move across the galaxy to implement their control, which matches their attack first and worry about the consequences later military doctrine."

"Those organic-units certainly love their spy programs, as proven to be, troublesome, as allies units have to clean out spy program every time we interfaces with allied units of the Citadel," Legion-VII reported.

"Tell me about it. Lieutenant Commander Adams complains whenever we're near Council Space due to having to triple check for spy programs," Tali quipped with a weak smile.

Anderson nodded as he turned to Sten to command him to speak, "And finally the turians."

"The turians are much like qunari under the Qun," Sten said with a stiff lip. "Each individual has a place as the entire population is under a military hierarch from workman to soldier. The grand military leaders for each world are known as the Primarchs, with the Primarch from Palaven entrenched as the head of the entire Turian nation. Because of this, they are the main police force of the galaxy and have the largest army and attack fleet an individual race can produce, with the largest number of dreadnaughts."

Wrex nodded as long as David smiled, "Good you have the general sense. Now the three Counselors in power are Tevos, Valern and Sparatus. Tevos is much like most asari, she opts for diplomacy before violence, but unlike most asari, she is a political animal who puts the Asari's influence above all else, and she has four hundred years of experience to insure she get what she wants. Valern is one of the few male salarians in power and is rumored to have close ties to STG, which he uses to keep his opponents on their toes. Then there is Sparatus. Sparatus is like most turians, who takes security of the Citadel very seriously. Due to such mentality, he is also the only one openly hostile to the idea of the Confederation being outside Council immediate control. Tevos is patient and Valern believes our independence will not last long. Due to such… hatred, he will be the most frustrating to deal with, so don't provoke him if you can help it.

"Overall, they are the most dangerous organic politicians you will ever meet. So be cooperative and watch what you say for they have long memories, and they will make your life frustrating."

And with those words floating in the air, a black geth, Legion's Shadow appeared before them as it decloaked. Zevran whistled as he asked, "How did you do that? And is it possible I can I do it as well?"

"This unit used a cloaking device that refracts light and energy to make units such as this one disappear from most sensors, including visual. As long as a unit have the equipment or modified armor, any unit can use it as long as nothing disrupt the field."

"I want one," Zevran quietly added with a whisper. "It will be quite useful for accidents."

Legion's Shadow took note of Zevran before it turned to the high-ranking personal, "The Council is about done Wrex-Supreme Commander and Anderson-Rear Admiral. You may come in now."

The group nodded as they walked in to see Udina expressing his rage, "This is an outrage! You wouldn't be allowing Saren to walk around free if it was a Turian colony that was attacked!"

"The Council is not about to put one of our top SPECTREs on hold every time they are accused of a crime on here say," spoke the salarian repressive, a thin bipedal amphibian with three-digit finger, large eyes, a long face and two organic horns. A species that humans have a hard time telling the difference in individuals, but Counselor Valern was distinctive with his grey iris, short snout and instead of armor or a jumpsuit most salarians wear, Valern wore blue and red robes instead.

"This is not just here say! We have evidence he attacked one of our colonies with the darkspawn! He is a threat to the entire galaxy and I demand you do something about it!" Udina yelled at the Council.

"You don't make demands of the Council, Ambassador!" yelled a brown turian, who looked odd wearing the red and blue suit as oppose to most turians who constantly wore armor. However, no one was fooled by the politician's exterior, as Counselor Sparatus was a soldier flared behind the turian's white face paint and green eyes.

A turian who needed to be calmed down as Ambassador Nakmor took over, "And we are not making demands, but we are concerned Saren is not being detained considering the charges and how dangerous he can be, even without the darkspawn."

That was when the asari representative, nodded her head. The asari were considered the most beautiful species in the galaxy and they closely resemble a human female. The only difference is that they are ageless woman with carnage tentacles instead of hair, lack ear lobes and their skin were shades of blue and purple. Counselor Tevos herself could be considered a cold, beautiful rose with violet blue skin hidden behind a beautiful blue and red dress that complimented her round face. She was an older asari in the matron stage, the mid-life of an asari's lifespan evident by the white markings on her upper lip and white strips along her forehead, each side of her chin and lower lip that was a contrast to her grey eyes.

She was a powerful woman who had great respect for Ambassador Nakmor, as shown in her voice, "And I understand your concerns Ambassador Nakmor, Utag. However, Saren does have the right to defend himself. Citadel Security will report there finding during the hearing."

"And we will report ours," Nakmor, Utag added just before the transmission ended, bringing the two ambassadors' attention to the newcomers.

Udina was the first to let his frustrating out, "Admiral Anderson, Supreme Commander Wrex, I've see you brought a large number of guests with you."

"Just the ground teams and the survivors we rescued from the ship we've captured. I thought it would be best to bring them in. In case you had any questions," Anderson stated, hiding his own anger against the ambassador.

"We've both read the mission reports. I trust they are in order?" Udina asked with a calmer, yet more vicious tone.

"They are," Anderson stated slowly before switching gears to a parallel track. "I see you're not having much luck with the Council."

"They are not happy," Udina stated with a hidden snarl. "Saren is one of their top agents, and they dislike that we have accuse him of not only treason, but also bringing the darkspawn onto the galaxy."

"So they are not in the happiest moods, especially after such a big failure on your joint mission," Utag added as he looked at Jane.

"It wasn't my fault!" Jane yelled.

"It was no one's fault. No one could have planned against this," John added to placate his sister and the politicians before him. "If there is anyone to blame, it's Saren."

"But that may not matter as several advisors in the Citadel, and Councilor Septimus himself is looking for any reason to disbarred Jane from the SPECTREs," Udina bluntly stated. "Just be glad we have ironclad evidence that they can't ignore, or we may not have a chance to salvage this."

"Speaking of evidence, I believe you have the Ghost Crystal filled with Nihlus's last moment and the recorded information downloaded into Jane's mind?" Utag asked with a raised hand.

"Yes I have it right here," Anderson replied as he pulled out of his side pocket the Ghost Crystal and a data crystal the _Normandy_'s AIs recorded. "I recommend you don't activate the Ghosting Crystal until moments before you show them the information as it's upsetting to the turians who believe their spirits are trapped within such vessels."

"Don't worry, I have no attention of starting the next galactic war," Utag stated as Udina check his omni-tool onboard clock.

"We have eight hours before the meeting starts. I would like to go over some things with Anderson before that time," Udina stated as he tried his best to be civil to Anderson.

"Of course but I would like to speak with my crew outside to act as chaperones for our guests before the hearing," Anders stated.

"This unit also like to discuss some more avenues of information allied units can use against Saren and alliances the enemy unit may have built," Legion's Shadow added.

"Very well, we'll meet in the lodge to discuss our options, we'll see you then," Ambassador Nakmor, Utag commanded before he and Udina left the room, leaving behind a large group of fighters behind.

"Well that was certainly a contrast," Jane stated with an amused smile while Ashely saluted.

"Permission to speak up ma'am? Sir?" Ashely William asked.

"Lieutenant Williams, you don't need to ask. Just speak your mind when we're not trying to be diplomatic," John ordered the younger junior officer.

"Yes sir," Lt Ashely Williams acknowledged before she spoked her opinion. "Sir, why is Ambassador Nakmor working with Ambassador Udina. Wouldn't it make more sense to use one diplomat that could be more diplomatic instead of that angry ass that yells a lot?"

"Despite the fact I'm biting my tongue saying this, Udina being a royal ass to everyone, he has its uses," Rear Admiral Anderson stated. "Udina's blunt approach is sometimes the only way to negotiate, especially in trade and military negations."

"Plus he helps soften up diplomats for Utag by allowing the freakishly calm phyjack of a krogan to make people agree with him, even if it is the same deal Udina was suggesting," Wrex added with a smirk.

"Udina-Ambassador's approach has increased favorable agreements to the Confederation by seven percent while Nakmor-Ambassador brings an additional eight percent to favorable agreements," Legion's Shadow reported.

"But that doesn't make sense," Tali added in confusion.

"That's politics Ensign, Lieutenant," Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko pointed out.

"I hate politics and the fact it has anything to do with the military." Ashely had stated with a scold before straighten her form and saluted to Anderson, "Sir."

"And sometimes it's necessary, just tolerate it a whole lot and you'll be fine," Anderson recommended before turning towards the others. "Now then, as you can no doubt surmised, the Council is not particular pleased were accusing Saren of war crimes, and while we have enough to get him, I don't want to wait for his allies."

"In particular are criminal and political units here on the Citadel," Legion-VII reported. "While we have not identified the specific targets, this unit have identified they are coordinated by one unit here on the Citadel that reports to a higher one off the Citadel."

"I recommend you take care of them before the Council hearing later today," Anderson recommended to his two former subordinates.

"Recommend sir?" Velanna asked while staying behind John.

"I've told you before the mission for Eden Prime had started that no matter the outcome, I would step down. And now it's your turn to take command after these finale orders," Anderson stated as he addressed his former senior staff from the _CSS Normandy_. "My finale orders are that my former Senior Staff aboard the _CSS Normandy _are to watch over our witness and crew on shore leave as Eliza is transferred aboard the _CSS Waterloo_. So says the ayes."

"Ayes!" the Confederation personal saluted at their beloved leader's final orders.

"Then so let it be," Anderson smiled as he looked at their guests and his former crewmembers. "Go on; enjoy your time on the Citadel for the Council will not let up when it comes time for the trial."

Two of the members looked ready to leave but a few others did not want to leave just yet. "Is there any way we can help you?" Merrill asked with a small blush on her face.

"No, it's too risky," David Anderson had stated. "You are all valuable witness and I'm sure Saren will love to make you disappear."

"If that is the case, you would have assigned guards to protect us, instead of your senior staff to act as tour guards," Varric pointed out while Leliana nodded along.

"So please, let us help you nail the bastard that tried to kill us," Leliana begged.

"Well some of us," Anderson added. "I'm not one much for fighting. I prefer to be in the support role then the frontlines. Besides I would like to visit fine establishments and not be judged for being with the Circle for a change."

Anderson ignored Anderson's comment in favor of the ladies that begged to help his former crew, "I'm sorry, but I'm not putting people who have never seen a gun until a single galactic day ago in the middle of a firefight. Besides, you'd be safer in the public areas with chaperons and a few guards shadowing you then being confined in a safe house I'm sure the SPECTREs known thanks to STG Intelligence. At least in the open, Saren can't attack you without it looking too suspicious for him."

The girls along with Sten and Varick looked defeated or disappointed at the prospect while Anderson looked relieved and Zevran nodded along. "It's for the best. While I'm skilled in what I can do, I am not sure that it would fit in your investigation. So with no further adieu my ladies and gentlemen, I leave you with a pleasant farewell," Zevran slyly smiled, as he walked away, not realizing Legion's Shadow observed with mechanical interest.

Legion's Shadow returned its interest back to the group as Admiral Anderson turned towards John and Jane Shepard's group, "Now then, with the civilians out of the way, Legion's Shadow will lay out a few avenues to peruse."

"Thank you Anderson-Rear Admiral," Legion's Shadow nodded as it reported to the group. "There are currently three avenues to peruse. The first is to peruse Sha'ira-Consort, an asari that is consider to be many things. An oracle, a leader, a high priestess, a spiritual therapist and a high price escort all rolled in one."

"I've heard of her," Kaidan admitted. "Some of the crew would trade two weeks of their paycheck to visit the Consort or her acolytes. Surprisingly, most of them just want to talk to her, though some of them wouldn't admit it," Kaidan added as a few organic crewmembers looked away in embarrassment.

"Sha'ira-Consort also has the ties to a lot of valuable units on the Citadel and beyond, so at the very least, that unit can talk to the right people to insure information normally censored would be released and vice-versa. And the asari unit maybe willing to help you to deal with to deal with a problem that unit is experiencing," Legion's Shadow advised the group.

"We should probably talk to her, even if her loyalties are fluid," Ashely advised, not at liking talking to someone who is not loyal to their own government, even if it is the Council.

"Very well, we'll talk to her even if it turns out to be nothing," John mussed. "Any more advice that is more concrete?"

"Yes Shepard-Captain," Legion's Shadow acknowledged. "A more creditable source is the former C-Sec and CNIS liaison, Harkin found in a strip club called Chora's Den."

"Harkin! You can't be serious," Anderson snarled.

"This unit is serious Anderson-Admiral," Legion's Shadow answered the shocked Rear Admiral.

"But Harkin is nothing more than a drunk and a corrupt loser that should have been let go on his first day two years ago," Anderson growled in anger.

"That maybe so, but the organic unit maybe more than perceived," Legion's Shadow pointed out. "Former Harkin-liaison was removed from duty due to having criminal ties with several different organized criminal units on the Citadel. While that wasn't unusual for a corrupt organic like him, one of C-Sec's officer, a turian unit named Garrus Vakarian-Officer believes one of the criminal organizations Harkin deals with has ties to Saren-SPECTRE."

"Okay, while I'm loath to ask this, why don't we talk to this turian instead of Harkin?" Trex asked while gritting his teeth.

"Because allied CID units tasked with intercepting C-Sec communication have found out the turian unit has gone underground to investigate a case C-Sec closed. Finding corrupted unit Harkin would at the very least lead to Vakarian-Officer, and at best get you the information on the corrupted-units we seek," Legion's Shadow pointed out that shocked Tali'Zorah and Ashely to different degrees.

"Isn't spying on our supposed allies illegal?" Ashely William asked.

"It's illegal for them to spy on us, but we know they do it anyway to get ahead of our collective, so we do the same to counter their attacks in what allied units call the Game. A game every units play when units first formed collective units," Legion-VII explained.

"It still doesn't make it right," Tali said under her breath.

"No, it doesn't Ensign, but sometimes it doesn't matter in the end and you have to hope you don't have to make the dirty choice to survive," Anderson admitted. "And speaking of dirty jobs, I loathe the thought that ass Harkin being useful but sometimes you have to win with a shitty hand."

"At least the corrupted unit won't cost a fortune to get information as oppose to the next unit," Legion's Shadow stated. "The final recommendation is a Volus named Barla Von-banker, a banker who has ties with SPECTREs and a known information broker for the Shadow Broker."

"The Shadow Broker?" Ashely and Trex asked at the same time.

"An Information Broker of the highest level. He, she, it has been playing the game for years and accumulated enough agents and information that every government has to play his game," Anderson explained to group.

"For the right price, you get any source of information from him," Tali stated with a nervous twirl "When my people were wandering the stars, they often dealt with the Shadow Broker for information like the locations of empty systems to strip down to keep my people alive. Of course we also knew that the Shadow Broker stole a few pieces of technology we salvage or made as well."

"Which makes it a burden dealing with the Shadow Broker," Legion's Shadow explained. "That unit has agents everywhere and is able to collect vital information, forcing governments to either pay to keep it hidden or to acquire it. The unit must be extremely rich with the standoff between the Confederation and Council collectives."

"Aye and he doesn't take betrayal well," Wrex whistled with a smile. "Some of my best paying jobs when I was mercenary were to execute those that betrayed his trust."

"So we have a high class consular slash whore, a sleaze bag, a hothead cop, and an information broker. So many great choices," Jane said with sarcasm. "Well I take Consort and Harkin since I do have more tact then my dear brother."

"I'll deal with Barla Von and C-Sec to possibly find anything about Garrus if Harkin is less reliable then Anderson indicated," John nodded to Anderson.

"Sound likes you're ready to face the world," Anderson added with a smile. "Then I will take my leave. Good luck."

Soon Anderson and Legion's Shadow left the group alone in the office as the group tally up their teams, "I'll take Lieutenant Commander Velanna, and Lieutenant Kaidan, Legion-VII and Trex. You take Lieutenant Ashely and Ensign Tali'Zorah nar Normandy."

"And me," Wrex stepped up and volunteer. "No way am I going to miss seeing both Shepards in action. And since I've seen the Captain at work, it's time to see how the Commander does it."

"Does that mean you're in command sir?" Jane asked while Trex cursed his luck in missing out on the chance to see Wrex at work.

"Nope, you are. I am sick of ruling over hotheads, so I leave it to you. I expect you to treat me like one of your subordinates when I travel with you," Wrex added with a smirk.

"I'll try to keep that in mind," Jane added as a swirl of uneasiness in commanding the man who leads the Krogans.

She quickly swallowed her fear as John ordered them to move out to complete their first mission without the old man over them. Jane was not the only nervous as they took the first steps to greater Presidium itself.

**Location: Serpent Nebula/Window/Citadel/Presidium: Park and Consort Offices**

**Human Date: February 5, 2183**

To say the Presidium was beautiful was an understatement of galactic proportion. For as far as the eye should was not only beautiful architecture, but also a large lake/canal in the center of the Presidium surrounded by flora native to every corner of the galaxy. An interesting design that was not what the Protheans intended, but did not stop the current natives to convey beauty beyond ones dreams. The most beautiful area within the Presidium was a garden right before the offices of the Consort.

Built as a symbol of beauty and unity that litter asari philosophy, the garden was made up of several different flowerbeds large enough to walk through. Each bed different and filled with a dozen different species of flowers/equivalent each found on the homeworlds of every space faring species. Jane smiled at the smell of lavender and honey suckle mixed in the air as she and her large group walked through the archway into the Consort lobby. A beautiful room filled with long couches, chairs and Jacuzzi, occupied by clients, and acolytes, mostly asari with the odd human female and rare female from other species working just as hard as the asari acolytes.

At the very front of the room was a reception with the holographic plaque inscribed with the name '_Acolyte Nelyna._' She was a perky asari with bluish dark skin with white paint on her face. She was a beauty that conveyed enough sexuality to match her flimsy dress. She gave a charming smile to newcomers as she pulled up the Consort's schedule.

"Hello, my name is Nelyna, an Acolyte to the Consort. I don't recognized as one of our expected clients today, especially such important people like Commander Shepard and the Supreme Commander of the Krogans. Would you like to schedule an appointment?"

"Can't I just go in?" Jane asked with curiosity.

"Hm, I'm afraid not," Nelyna admitted though she was tempted by such a handsome/beautiful people from their respective species. "You must understand that many seek the Consort services but only a few actually gets to meet with her. In fact most of our clients here today are only here to see our acolytes while waiting a few months to actually meet her."

"Wait a few months to meet someone? What makes the Consort so special?" Jane asked the 'young' asari before her.

"Well the Consort is a very special woman that is difficult to explain," Nelyna admitted nervously. "She's many things to many people and something different for each. Some seek her for advice, some seek her entertainment and others seek her for pleasure. Most of the time, our clients don't realized what they are seeking until she provides it to them."

"You make it sound like she's some king of Oracles like the ones found in Ancient Greek's mythology," Ashely pointed out.

Nelyna shook her head in amusement for answers, "Not in the usually sense. She's merely a woman; a woman with remarkable skill, kindness and a very generous spirit."

"And you're her followers?" Tali asked with a blush as she noticed an acolyte was getting close to one of the clients.

"In a sense yes," Nelyna admitted. "We all felt a calling to the Consort, and we accept all walks of life, even occasionally female members from other species. Though it does appear humans are becoming more common, I guess your species are really spreading your wings," Nelyna added with a wink before she continued the conversation.

"As Acolytes, we learn under the Consort various different aspects on her craft; though we acolytes often focus on a single aspect like song, dance, game, conversation and even pleasure."

"And what's your specialty?" Wrex asked with a smirk.

One Nelyna returned, "My specialty is touch. My fingertips can find every tension point in your body and… relieve it."

"I think I may want to try such service," Wrex laughed in response as Nelyna exclaimed in excitement.

"Excellent, we'll add you to the client list and hopefully see you in a month."

Wrex lost his joys as he stated, "You can't be serious. No woman is worth that long of a wait to relieve stress."

"Oh if you think that's bad, then you should see the waitlist for the Consort, its three to four months long," Wrex explained to the shocked group. "Regardless, I'll add you to both client lists, and I'll add you as well Commander and you should hear back from us."

"Um… great I guess," Jane added while unsure if she should since she is not usually interested in women. "But I actually want to talk to the Consort now," Jane had stated as she leaned over to give the acolyte charming smile. "I heard she has been experiencing trouble and I am good with helping people. So I was hoping to trade one favor for another."

"I don't know. She's very busy and may not have the time to meet strangers…" Nelyna started off but stopped as her desk bleeped.

Soon a beautiful voice called out behind the speakers on Nelyna's desk, "_Nelyna_."

"Yes Sha'ira," Nelyna replied.

"_Send the Commander up, I wish to speak with her,"_ Sha'ira commanded as off in the distance, a screen door closes, as though someone was spying on them.

"Yes of course Consort," Nelyna bowed before she turned to them with a smile as the sound of footsteps echoed through the walls. "Looks like the Consort will meet with you after all."

"Thank you Nelyna," Jane bowed in response.

"Just don't have too much fun up there," Nelyna winked at a confused human before directing Jane to the entrance to the Consort offices.

The group was about to stop but Nelyna stopped them with her words, "I am sorry, but the Consort only wants to talk to the Commander at this time. If you follow me, me and my fellow acolytes we'll make sure the rest of you are comfortable," Nelyna told Jane's companions.

"Do I have to meet her alone?" Jane asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No offense Shepard, but the feeling I'm getting from my mother's bones tells me this is something we should not intrude on. We'll see you when you're done with the hot asari waiting for you upstairs," Wrex laughed as he followed two lovely asari along with Tali'Zorah and Ashley Williams, leaving Jane alone.

Jane sighed as she moved through the screen door that led to not only to a hallway of rooms where the Acolytes could sleep but a set of stairs to another room. A large room filled with everything a room needed to entrained guests for every kind of party, included the adult ones. For some reason, Jane felt liked her entire body perspired as she stared into the back of a very beautiful asari in skintight, red and blue, slip dress that exposed her back and midsection.

The baby blue matriarch with a dark scalp seemed to have psychic powers when she ordered Shepard to stop when she stepped onto the carpet floor. "That's close enough Commander. I've heard a great many things about you even before you came to the Citadel."

Jane felt like butterflies as she stood with confidence, "Then you know why I am here."

"Of course, you need help against Saren's allies and your hopping I can help you if you do me a favor," the Consort smiled as she turned to face Jane with a smile. Brilliant blue eyes stared into Jane's powerful green eyes as she stated, "And I can offer you some aid. In fact the favor I ask will lead you to the very things your search for."

"And what is the favor?" Jane asked as Sha'ira came closer.

The Consort loved how nervous she made Jane as she rubbed her cheek affectionately, "There is a turian named Septimus Oraka. He's a retired general who had seen too much action and needs my help to put it to rest. I won't go into specific details, but I couldn't be what he wanted me to be and is now drinking his trouble away in Chora's Den, while spreading vicious lies about me."

"So you want me to talk to him?" Jane asked as the Consort let her hand fall.

"I want to appeal to him as a fellow soldier with honor. Convince him to stop spreading lies about me." The Consort had stated before she moved in close with a very affectionate hug to whisper into Jane's ear, "If you do this for me, I will be… very grateful."

Jane unintentionally shivered as she pushed the Consort gently away. The Consort gave a hurt, and yet gave an understanding smile as she allowed Jane to ask her question in a more comfortable position, for now. "And this will lead me to the evidence I need against Saren?"

The Consort gave a knowing smile in return, "Let's just say Chora's Den is more than just a strip club."

"Then I will do this favor for you," Jane acknowledge as Sha'ira returned the smile.

"Thank you Commander I appreciate it. Now could you please leave me, I have many clients waiting for me," Sha'ira directed Jane to the exit and Jane did not look a gift horse in the mouth as she hightailed it out of there.

Jane was down the stairs into the lobby to find a contented Wrex, a smiling Ashely Williams that was listening to the asari equivalent to Ulysses's Odyssey, which lacked in the blood department and focused more understandings ones place and unity. Jane did not care as she called for them to leave, "Wrex, Ash and Tali, it's time to go."

Wrex groaned as he got up, thanking the girl for her services as he followed the human with an equally reluctant, satisfied girls as they followed the Commander out. Wren gave a toothy smile as he asked, "So Shepard, did you enjoy the visit?"

"No," Jane stated rather quickly.

"So you didn't get anything out of it?" Wrex asked with a knowing smile as Jane growled.

"Outside of being embarrassed, I did get something out of it, information that this Chora's Den is more than just some strip club," Jane stated as she pulled out her omni-tool, leaving a message to John and telling him her team was heading to Chora's Den.

After a quick call, Wrex could not let it go, "So you want to go now, or do you want to talk to some of the higher class ladies for a while?"

Tali'Zorah nar Normandy actually blushed a bright reddish purple while Ashely Williams sighed in annoyance. Jane look exhausted as she exclaimed, "I hope you're not saying what I think you're saying. For if, you are insinuating that, I will punch you in the nose! I am not the type to go to someone's bed due to attraction and… and I'm not one to do so with another girl… at least usually," Jane whispered quietly to herself. "Now let's go, we don't have all day and I had rather not spend the rest of our eight hours here arguing."

**Location: Serpent Nebula/Window/Citadel/Presidium: Market Place**

**Human Date: February 5, 2183**

In another part of the Presidium was a clean, sterilized area that was the market place filled with banks, shops and kiosks. While not as numerous as market places found in the Wards, their merchandise generally was nicer and more expensive since their customers ranged from the rich to those that have organizations fronting the bill. Of course, the most expensive of services came from a bank run and owned by Barla Von.

Barla Von was a volus, a vertically challenged species with short stubby limbs and a body as round as a bowling ball. An unintimidating species with drooping cheeks seen through high pressure suits that not only allowed them to breath in their ammonia-based atmosphere, but also kept them in a high pressure environment to survive. They are not a species meant to fight, but that did not stop them from dominating galactic markets. Moreover, Barla Von was the most successful. Barla Von was a high-class businessman in an expensive black pressure suit with green and gold stripes along his suit.

He was insuring his customers were happy when he noticed a group of well-armed individuals made up of members of the Confederation. He knew he had to give his best presentation as he greeted his guest, "Ah, greeting Captain John Shepard."

"You know who I am?" John asked.

"Of course, one does not work in the circles I do without knowing who are the important people, whether they are politicians, generals, Counselors or members of the First Battalion. And you're one of the most famous members, with a reputation that dwarfs even your sister in some respects, despite her being the SPECTRE candidate over you," Barla Von pointed out.

"Then you must know why we are here, as an Agent of the Shadow Broker?" John asked as Barla Von blinked in exclamation before he shook his head.

"You're very blunt Captain, but you are right. I do work for the Shadow Broker and I do have information you want on Saren and his allies."

"What's the price for such information?" Legion-VII asked.

"Normally such information would cost a large sum of credits but the Shadow Broker is feeling very… generous, so the tip is free," Barla Von stated as he pulled up the necessary information.

"The information is free? That does not compute with what we know about the Shadow Broker," Legion-VII stated.

"Unless there is something he wants out of it," Velanna suggested before Trex asked the man the question they were now thinking.

"And what is the catch for such valuable information?"

"No catch. The Shadow Broker isn't very happy with Saren at the moment and any information that would hurt him would be a plus to him," Barla Von explained to the group. "The man you want to speak to is Fist. He's a local Crime Boss that has been dealing with Saren to supply a large number of things like weapons, tech, chemical and people, both as personal and slaves," Barla Von added, getting a twitch from the group, especially John and Velanna.

"Do you know where this Fist is?" John practically growled at the short volus.

"No clue. Fist owns over a dozen different legit business that are protected thanks to an exchange of hands both legal and of questionable legality. That is not including the dozen or more warehouses or hideouts he can stay hidden in if things go south. He is not exactly stupid," Barla Von explained to the group. "However, a four man bounty hunter squad known as Death Hand hired by the Shadow Broker was able to track him down but was arrested on the job and will not reveal his location in fear of losing their contract. Inform them that they will be paid in full, if they provide the information and you should have a direct line to Fist."

"Thank you for the information," John stated before he turned around with his group, not noticing Barla Von was eye smiling.

"The pleasure was all mine, Captain John Shepard."

**Location: Serpent Nebula/Window/Citadel/Wards: Chora's Den**

**Human Date: February 5, 2183**

The Wards are the true heart of the Citadel for the average citizen. While the decisions and actions of the people on the Presidium and the Citadel Tower affect the galaxy as whole, the Wards are where the common man lives and it showed. Every inch of the place was crowded, with people from all forms of life. At least that was true for the main hallways, but there are also areas were only a few tread. Like the maintenance areas found in the back alleys of the Wards, and the entrance to an out of the way striper club called Chora's Den.

Chora's Den was a small, sleazy bar that used primarily young asari strippers to attract customers in the form of drooling men and woman. It also had a dozen different guards including a vicious looking krogan bouncer in high-grade mercenary armor. Guards ready to push out any drunks that caused the owner any troubles. They were also there to question heavily armed personal, such as Jane and her team.

"Hold human; what business does the Confederation have with this establishment?" asked one of the guards at the entrance.

"I am here on the request of the Consort to talk to one Septimus Oraka. I'm also looking for a human named Harkin, we have some questions for him," Jane explained for the group.

"Ah…" the krogan body guard nodded as he pulled up a list of clients from his omni-tool. "Well, the General is inside if you wish to talk to him. As for Harkin, he left a while ago. You can go in, as long as you don't pull out your weapons."

"Thank you, we'll be quick," Jane stated, just as she walked in while Ashely Williams looked disgusted at what was called a bar.

"A million miles away from Earth, and instead of the final frontier, there is a bar filled with half naked woman shaking their asses on a dancing pole," Ashely Williams stated while Wrex laughed.

"That's how you know we've enter civilization, by walking into a bar filled with strippers!"

"Please don't make such a joke, or the three of us will beat the crap out of you," Jane stated as Wrex continued to laugh as Tali'Zorah tugged onto Jane's side.

"Commander, I think that is the turian we seek," Tali pointed to a tall, brown turian sitting in a private booth, alone and not even looking at the patrons and strippers around him.

"Yep, that's are man, let's go," Jane ordered as her team fallowed, not realizing a perky redhead waitress and a female Asian reporter was keeping their eyes on them as Jane's Team walked toward Septimus.

The former Turian General was a drunk, but a good-looking drunk, for a turian. He had a well-kept body under a tidy uniform that was sleeker then even the servers in this bar. His orange eyes were steady as the white face paint on his flat face twitched in annoyance as he watched another girl was treated with disrespect, at least in his mind. The long fangs on his face popped open as he sighed in annoyance. He then took his last sip of his drink when he noticed he had company.

Septimus posture stiffened as he greeted his fellow military officer and spoke with a smoother tone that hid the swirls in his voice, "Commander, well this is interesting. Please have a seat and please shut the door. I'm not one for heavy beat music."

"Or Strippers by the looks of it," Jane pointed out. "Which makes me wonder, why come here when there are other bars to go to?"

"Besides the fact this place has some of the best drinks," Septimus asked with an amused smile. "It's because I came here to forget about her." Septimus sighed as he leaned forward, "I've done a lot of horrible things in my day, and there is only one woman in this dammed galaxy that helped me forget it!" Septimus practically yelled as he slumped down.

He stirred sadly into his drink when a cute redhead in skintight clothing walked in with a drink, "Here's your drink General."

"Thank you Jenna," Septimus smiled as he accepted his drink.

Jenna returned his smile as she gave small bow. "Would your guest like anything to drink? We have a wide selection of drinks for every species. Even batarian, quarian and krogan drinks if you like."

"None for me thanks," Jane stated as her fellow soldiers also waved Rita off while Wrex just smiled.

"I have a mug of Ryncol, if you have it?" Wrex asked as he smiled at the girl.

"One mug of Ryncol coming up," Jenna jolted down before asking, before she walked out of the room.

Just as Septimus took a sip of his drink before he sat it down, "Ah, that's the stuff. Now what were we talking about?"

"Well I was about to ask why you are spreading lies about her," Tali told the man quietly as she took a trip down memory lane, remembering her family life.

A thought broken as Septimus yelled, "Because she reject me, me! Septimus Oraka, General of the Turian Army!"

"That's rough," Ashely Williams stated before moving in for the kill. "But surely to take this route isn't going to fix the problem or make it better. And certainly it's not the _honorable_ route to take," Ashley added as she spat out 'honorable.'

"Look kid, I know what you're trying to do, but I don't need a speech or a sermon to get myself together or tell me what I did is wrong. I just… I don't know what I need. Just something to fill the in hole that was my heart," Septimus sighed as he stirred his drink just as Jenna came in with a twenty-ounce glass mug of green liquid that could kill anyone but a krogan.

"One mug of Ryncol," Jenna smiled as she handed the krogan his mug. "Are you sure none of you want anything else?"

"No, but thank you," Jane stated as Wrex took a big gulp of his drink.

Jenna gave a small smile and quickly left as Ashley stared at Jenna with suspicious eyes, her eyes wondering to Wrex's mug and back to the girl while Jane moved back to her conversation with the former General.

"Well then General, it sounds like you just lost a battle in a long war we call one's life. And while it may hurt right now, you know it's not over. So what do you say to your men to get them back so you can win a war?"

"War," Septimus roared with a bit of humor in his voice. "That's what it feels like. How did it come to this?" Septimus asked as she looked at the drink in his hand.

"I guess heartbreak is much like war," Jane stated. "But that's still doesn't answer my question, what do you tell them?"

"I tell them life is not fair but we have a duty to protect what we care about the most. Then help them stand on their own two feet so they can walk the path of a good soldier," Septimus stated as he leaned back. "So you think it's that easy, just stand up and walk like a soldier?"

"It certainly be less pathetic then just drinking this swill all day in some back alley bar," Wrex grunted as he took another large gulp of his drink.

"Alright, I'll do it, once I have a cold shower or two," Septimus admitted as he remembered something. "By the way, would you mind doing me a favor?"

"Depends on the favor," Jane told Septimus, who smiled in response.

"There is an Elcor Diplomate by the named Xeltan, who believes Shira gave up his secrets."

"Why would he think such a thing?" Tali asked.

"Because I've told him," Septimus admitted. "Look, I just need you to convince him of the truth with this." The general then handed them a datapad. "Take this datapad it shows my information. It will exonerate Shira and convince the elcor."

"Thank you general," Jane stated as she upload the information to CID, who will send agents to tell the elcor at their embassy of what really happen and that the Consort did not in fact betrayed him.

"Well then, here's to soldiers acting like soldiers," Septimus saluted as he took one last gulp. He smiled as Jenna made her back in.

"Oh General, I see your done with your drink early, would you like another?" Jenna asked.

"No, I'm heading out to get my life back on track, but thank you," Septimus told the young woman with a charming smiled that broke hearts.

Jenna returned the smile as she turned to face the others, "Would you like a refill of your drink, um… Mr. Krogan? And would the others wish to make an order?"

"I like to make an order in you telling me why you're spying on us," Ashely growled as spun out of her chair to grab Jenna and point her rapid fire, Confederation issue M-5 Phalanx pistol to the woman's side.

Jenna was scared shitless as Septimus jumped up with his own M-9 Tempest, a machine gun pistol that resemble one of Earth's Ak-47's except half its length, and was painted black and red. "What are you doing?"

"This girl was spying on us," Ashely growled as Jenna began to pale considerably. "One of my sisters worked as a cocktail waitress, so I know enough about the job and the regulation most stores have their workers abide by to know you were acting suspicious. I saw this girl rush pass three customers after delivering our drinks instead of getting their orders or just telling you be with them in one minute. She then activated her omni-tool and seemed to be listening in a secluded place behind the bar that only a few could see, and unfortunately, I was one of those people.

"I also notice that mug you used for Wrex's drink. It has a plastic holder underneath it while the other customers are just plain, naked glass mugs that have not even an ounce of plastic on them. If I was a betting woman, I bet that's where you planted the listening device and you were listening in on us, maybe hopping to hear on First Battalion secrets."

Jenna shook in fear as the others turned to Wrex, who quickly finished his drink before smashing the mug. The shattered glass gave way to the plastic holder to reveal a listening chip planed right at the bottom, concealed. Wrex picked it up to state, "Well would you look at that, one listening device. I guess you were right Lieutenant, though I think we would appreciate it if you told us your suspicions sooner Lieutenant."

"I didn't want to tip her off sir," Ashely replied as she pressed the gun closer into the scared girl while Jane stared to her, stating, 'We'll talk later.'

The others stared as Septimus lowered his gun to ask the girl, "Why Jenna? Why?"

"I wasn't my idea to plant bugs on customer drinks," Jenna quickly stated in a panic.

"Then who did?" Jane asked.

"C-Sec," Jenna slowly admitted. "I am informant for C-Sec with two officers ready to save me if it comes to it." Jenna looked over to two turians sitting the booth. Jane did not need her omni-tool confirming they were C-Sec officers as Ashely William pulled away her pistol.

"Why is C-Sec spying on us?" Tali asked with a nervous tap.

"They're not spying on you specifically, more on this bar," Jenna admitted.

"Why?" Jane asked.

"The bar is not just a bar, but a front to corrupt man named Fist. He is the current rising kingpin and C-Sec wanted to clip his wings before he makes anymore headway."

"Hence why a nice girl like you is in this joint instead of anywhere else," Wrex growled, as Septimus looked shocked he was drinking in a place owned by a criminal.

Ashely Williams was not convince of the sincerity of the woman, "That still doesn't explain why you spied on us."

"There a rumor going around that Fist has powerful friends in the SPECTRE program, and since you were investigating Saren, they wanted me to see if he's the SPECTRE Fist befriended. Hence the bug," Jenna nervously smiled in response.

Jenna then felt relief as Jane revealed she believed her, "So Fist is the criminal that reports to Saren, looks like we don't have to look far after all."

"Saren, as in Saren Arterius?" Septimus asked as those from the Confederation were forced to answer yes to the growling general. "That entire family have always been trouble. His father being the warmonger that started the brief war between the human and us, and his children were worst. If they weren't such a prominent family, I would been able to kick them out of the military when I had the chance."

"Wished you did, then we wouldn't have to deal with Saren," Ashely Williams. "At least we have a more solid lead now, and we don't have to deal with Harkin since he is not here."

"But Harkin is still here," Jenna stated with confusion. "In fact, they took him to the back room after a turian in C-Sec armor wailed on him for information."

That caused the group from the Confederation freezed as they looked outside to the bartender, the bouncers and guards that litter the room. Their eyes meet as if they knew the soldiers were onto to them. Moreover, the First Battalion knew they made as the soldiers moved their hands closer to their main weapons. Both sides only had a moment notice when weapons became free and Cora's Den became a battlefield.

**Location: Serpent Nebula/Window/Citadel/Wards**

**Human Date: February 5, 2183 (Ten Minutes Earlier)**

Meanwhile in another part of the Wards, was a small, medical clinic not far from the beaten path, owned, and run by a single, human doctor. It was a simple clinic with its lobby and a single medical room with three bio-beds seen through a glass window from the lobby, which was currently transparent. Something that not would be unremarkable if it were not for two things. One was that the pale doctor that ran it, one Dr. Chloe Michel, was one of the best doctors found on the Citadel, insuring that the woman in the pink and white jumpsuit had constant streamed of customers. The second was that the forty something woman with pale green eyes and pale bowl cut red hair was alone with four armed thugs that were threatening her.

"Please, you don't have to do this!" yelled the doctor as she backed up against the glass window as the thugs moved closer. "I won't tell anyone I saw him, I swear!"

"That's good doc, but our boss doesn't want to take any risks," one of the two human thugs told the scared woman.

"Just be glad you're just being taken to be our organization doctor since our usual methods to insure others being quiet…" the turian thug tailed off when he noticed the door open and a large group of two humans, an elf, a krogan and a turian. In a flash, he took the doctor hostage as his gun was pointed at the heavily armed group.

He did not realize it was a member of the First Battalion and a CSEC Officer when he demanded answers, "Who are you?"

"Let her go," John demanded with his own pistol pointed at them.

However, the turian thug did not have a chance to comply when a second turian armed with M-77 Paladin appeared from the open door and opened fired. The one shot destroyed the civilian grade kinetic barrier, killing the man as the doctor ran to safety. The turian, Garrus Vakarian walked out, his pistol replaced with a Phaeston assault rifle, a predator looking assault rifle with a Heavy Barrel sticking out of the center of its mechanical opening shaped like a beak. It made the thugs back up until one felt an electrical omni-tool blade sticking out of a salarian thug as Legion-VII decloaked from behind the thug.

The last two thugs did not have a chance to comprehend what happened when the glass window in front of them was destroyed as bullets from Velanna with her N7 Variant and Kaidan N7 Valkyrie. The bullets soon hit their target, making the stratifying kill shot, as their bloody corpses hit the ground, dead. The battle was over as Garrus stood in front of the doctor while greeting his helpers.

"Perfect timing Captain, your distraction allowed me to get the bastard," Garrus smiled as he approached the group. "Though it does bring up the question why you're here?"

"Were here for the same reason you are here, Fist and his connection to Saren," John stated as he walked forward while being flank by Trex and Kaidan as Velanna and Legion-VII secured the entrance.

"And how would you know that?" Garrus asked, as he stood a bit on the edge.

"The same reason you did," John stated. "You and your turian friend Chellick have arrested the bounty hunter squad Death Hand and interrogated them. During your interrogation, you'd learned that they were after Fist for the Shadow Broker, and how Harkin had ties to them and how he led Fist to a doctor that treated him a week ago for wounds received by a now destroyed gang. Chellick was forced to agree to tell us where you where when you told him your progress."

**Recall: Serpent Nebula/Widow/Citadel: C-Sec Headquarters**

**Human Date: February 5, 2183**

Deep within the offices of C-Sec passed Captain Decian Chellick, a thin turian with blue face paint around his silver scales and green eyes. Chellick received word that members from the Confederation Alliance of Worlds have gotten permission to interrogate the bounty hunters he and Garrus interrogated earlier. He waited patiently as a large group of soldiers appeared.

He sighed as he faced the group with a forced smile, "Awe, Captain, how can I help you?"

"You can help us by telling us where Garrus is and we know you know, don't insult our intelligence," John Shepard told the tired Turian.

"Honestly Captain, I don't know where he is," Chellick stated.

"But you know where the organic could have gone Chellick-Captain," Legion-VII theorized.

"I have no idea where he-" Chellick when he was interrupted by a call from the man he tried to protect.

"_Chellick, this Garrus, I'm sorry to call you but Fist's men are going to adduct the doctor I warned you about. Please send some officers over, I don't care how, Garrus out._"

Chellick cursed as Trex smirked at the turian. "So you don't know where he is. Seems like bullshit to me. Do we need to talk to your supervisor about a possibly illegal investigation, or are you going to take us to Garrus and this doctor."

Chellick sighed as he looked up; "Follow me," as he picked up his weapons and led them to the small medical clinic.

**End Recall**

He noticed the familiar turian and Garrus winced, "Sorry Chellick for getting you involved."

"At least now you owe me one," Chellick sighed as Velanna approached the good doctor.

"Are you alright Dr. Michel?" Velanna asked.

"I'm fine, thanks to you and Garrus," Dr. Michel smiled with more confidence.

"So what happened here and why are Fist's men after you?" Kaidan asked.

"It started a week ago when I was brought to a patient's residence to treat them for a shotgun wound to the ribs. I didn't know it at the time, but the man was Fist, the local crime lord. It was only after he told me her in no uncertain terms, that if I talked, he would kill me with his friends in C-Sec that I found out who he was. I thought I would be blackmailed to treat his men, but it appears he has other plans for me that I don't think I will not like too much."

"No you won't but I can give you protection from the Confederation Alliance of World's Embassy if you tell us where he's hiding out," John told the woman, as she looked uncertain before she gave in.

"Fist is hiding in a local Stripper Club known as Chora's Den. Last I heard, he is still there planning something big,"

"We must go after him. If he still has ties with that traitor Saren, then he must be brought to justice before he enacts his plan!" Garrus growled.

"Commander Jane Shepard should be there already, we'll call her to give her a heads-up," John stated as he pulled up his omni-tool while Chellick followed suit.

"I'll do the same. I have two officers watching over my informant there." Chellick then made a call, a call no one was picking up. "That's odd; someone should have picked it up by now."

It was then when John made contact, "Commander, this is Captain John Shepard. Heads up, Fist is hiding in Chora's Den and there are C-Sec agents there looking out for an informant. Rendezvous at these coordinates and we'll engage in full force."

"_A little too late for that plan!_" yelled Jane through the communicator as the group heard gunfire and explosions in the background. "_We need help big brother. We're pinned down protecting civvies and a C-Sec informant. Some of the thugs have military grade weapons and shields and they killed the two C-Sec Officers. Please get here as soon as you can!_"

"We're on our way, Captain John Shepard out," John disconnected his communicator as he turned to the group. "You heard her. Jane's team is being pinned down and need assistance. Let's move out."

"Wait I'm coming with you," Garrus stated as he stepped up. "You'll need help navigating this place and I know a short cut to Chora's Den. Plus I'm very good shot as you saw and I'm even better with my sniper rifle," Garrus added as he indicated to the folded M-97 Viper on his back, a white black single, high power sniper rifle on his back.

"Very well, but I will leave you behind if you slow us down," John stated as Garrus nodded with understanding.

He then turned to Chellick to ask, "Chellick, you coming?"

Chellick shook his head 'no,' "Someone has to call this in Garrus to get C-Sec rolling and I am the higher rank agent, it has to be me." Chellick sighed as he looked at Garrus, "Get Jenna out of there safely. I promised I would protect her when she became my informant and I'd rather not be made into a liar."

"Don't worry, I will," Garrus stated before he turned to John, giving a nod before he ran out, followed closely by the members of the First Battalion as they ran to Chora's Den.

**Finally done, it didn't help this chapter to add more details so I left them out. Hope you enjoy it. **

**Author Note**

**A) Please meet Lieutenant James Reed, Leaf Ranger's OC, possibly the only other OC introduced until the Reaper War outside of Jane's mother XO. If anyone has any idea for any of the alien species, please send via review or PM.**

**B) Game Choice if this was a game instead of a story, you could chose to not engage in the hunt for Saren's allies, then it will skip to the Citadel and get Saren arrested. Then you go after Fist but skip Harkin and Barla Von as Garrus will meet with you after the meeting to give you the information and possibly join up. You will miss some xp and dialogue choices. **

**1) The Problem with the Council is like several countries here on Earth, they don't want to show others their system has problems. Hence, why the Council does not want to admit that one of their own is traitor because they would admit the system is flawed.**

**2) Most people forget this, but Garrus started as an angry cop before he transition in the loveable, sarcastic turian we all love in Mass Effect 2. Therefore, he won't be as likeable at first, but he'll become the character we all loved after talking to Jane for a while. **

**3) Yes, the CNIS ranks will be similar to NCIS, so expect different ranks for Bailey. I updated the Codex on CNIS under Government and Galactic Policies/Confederation Alliance of Words: Government Branches. **

**4) I write these stories under the assumption someone has never played Mass Effect or bothered to read the codexs. So expect long explanations like that. **

**5) Before we all know what the Shadow Broker was, I assumed it was a rogue AI for it explained why it never picked a side, and how it could handle all the information of the galaxy. Well, it was certainly a surprised to me what it turned out to be and I'm not going to spoil it for those who haven't played the Mass Effect 2 DLC the Shadow Broker. **

**6) I will be modifying the images a bit in the Presidium to match the feel of later games and to match characters in the game.**

**8) For species like the volus and hanar, I modified some skin/suit colors to give them unique appearances as main characters and to stand out more. Same with the vorcha and elcor when it comes to clothing, though I would leave them as it's hard for human's eyes to discriminate their shapes. **

**9) Planned for Emily Wong to be in this chapter and it being a single chapter but had to abandoned such plan due to length for what I've plan. She'll be in the next chapter getting a field report as you can tell from the description that she's in Cora's Den. **

**10) I know the last scene maybe a little weak, but I could not think of a way to make it stronger without losing the suspense in early chapters and the buildup to the next fight. Therefore, I am just going have to hope for the best.**

**11) This is to see if anyone gets this far, Chellick is a mage. What do you think of that?**

**Character Stats**

Name and Rank: Officer Garrus Vakarian

Species: turian

Class: combat soldier (tech)

Melee Weapon: molecular bladed knife

Grenades: homing grenades

Kinetic Weapons: Phaeston (heavy barrel), M-77 Paladin, &amp; N-97 Viper (heavy barrel &amp; thermal scope)

Ammo: armor-piercing rounds


	6. Chapter 6: Politics of the Citadel Part2

Mass Dragon Effect I: Shadows of the Past

Chapter 6: The Politics of the Citadel Part 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own Mass Effect or Dragon Age, those are owned by one of the few good companies under EA, Bioware.**

**Beta Reader: Albert**

**Last Update: 10/31/2016**

**Location: Serpent Nebula/Window/Citadel/Wards: Chora's Den**

**Human Date: February 5, 2183**

In deep backrooms of a sleazy bar on the capital of Citadel space, a brutal gunfight between the elite soldiers of the First Battalion and a rabble of criminals was taking place. A fight that under any other circumstance should have lasted a few minutes due to the superior skill and teamwork if not for the fact that in one of every four of the rabble had equipped military grade armor, shields and weapons. Instead, the fight was dragged out long enough for a human of Asian descent to pop a VI controlled camera to report the news live, with her messy bowl cut hair and damaged dress that gave the dramatic effect of the chaos that ensured.

"This is Emily Wong of Alliance News reporting from Chora's Den here on the Citadel. A large Crime Syndicate that has used the strip club as a front has brazenly opened fire on Confederation soldiers investigating the attack on Eden Prime. Civilian casualties are mounting as these criminals have opened fire on everyone in the room, even if they were their own employees. Confederation forces have returned fire and with a few allies, established a defensive line in an effort to save as many bystanders as they can while trying to push the criminals back."

Emily reported as the camera focused in on several civilians. A few were scattered around, trying to stay under cover while a large group, which included Jenna, were protected by Tali's defense drone and the former Turian General Septimus. Which was funny that even when drunk, Septimus was a better-shot then most of the thugs attacking them. Nearby, Lieutenant Ashely Williams took a number of deadly headshots with her new M-99 Saber at the rabble. The heavy rifle allowed her to pull off very powerful sniper shots on any enemy thug that attempted to get close.

Though getting closer to the entrenched soldiers was the last thing the thugs were worried about as a quarian engineer sent drone attacks on the rabble while sabotaging the military grade weapons and shields of the elite thugs that were scattered among the common rabbled. This put the powerful elite thugs into bind they could not afford to be in as they faced a rampaging krogan that either flung them around with his biotic powers or blasted them up close with his shotgun. The gunfight had turned into a bloodbath, all of which was being recorded by Emily Wong.

Emily was a dedicated reporter continued to report on the fight as she stumbled over a body, whose blood covered the floor. The corpse was an asari striper, who had removed her top and bra to reveal her large perky breast for a turian client before the firefight took place. The criminal thugs had not hesitated to put three bullets into her back and five more into the client who lay next to her discarded clothing. The floor was saturated with the asari's purple blood and the turian's blue blood that was also splattered all over their clothing and seats. It was a bloody scene Emily used as an example of how little the thugs cared about how many or who they killed, as even employees were killed.

She was so engrossed in the story, that she did not notice that a thug with a pistol had snuck up behind her. The thug planned to use the woman as a meat shield and he was close enough to grab her. However, before the thug had a chance, a powerful telekinesis push sent him head first into a wall, killing the thug with blunt force trauma. Emily Wong gasped in shock and turned around to her savior to gasp again, "Commander Shepard."

Since the fight began, Jane Shepard had been in the background, supporting her team with her powers and gunfire. Especially with energy blasts shaped as if arrows, spikes of ice, fireballs and balls of wind that exploded into shockwaves with enough power to shred flesh. All the while making sure Wrex did not hurt himself until she noticed the woman with a camera and one of Fist's coming up behind her and dealt with him. Jane was going to have a long with the non-combatant as Wrex continued his onslaught as he sent a biotic charge to slam into a krogan bouncer that stood his ground.

"What the hell are you doing wandering around?" Jane demanded from the scared woman as Wrex engaged the krogan bouncer, who had electric gauntlets for close quarter combat. "You could have gotten yourself killed."

"I'm sorry Commander Jane Shepard," Emily stammered as she heard bones began to crack as Wrex overpowered the and krogan's hands with his biotic covered hands.

Wrex's superior age and skill in biotics helped overwhelmed his opponent as Jane zeroed in on the scared reporter's words. "How do you know my name? Wait do I know you from somewhere?" Jane asked as she opened fire on two thugs that tried to take pot shots at Wrex, showing she was fully aware of the battle around her.

"I'm Emily Wong, a reporter for Alliance News," Emily said as she watched Wrex finished off the krogan with a bloody head-butt before he fell back from the next wave of bullets.

"I thought you looked familiar. You are one of the few reporters I actually like," Jane commented as she kept an eye on the woman as pushed her to cover with her. "What's a respected reporter doing out here?"

"I was looking into the corruption here on the Citadel and it was going nowhere until you came in," Emily answered as she gave a nervous chuckle. "In fact, since I knew you were investigating the attack on one of our colonies, I hoped that if you found anything on Organized Crime here on the Citadel that you would give it to me." Emily then ducked to avoid a stray bullet when she asked, "I don't suppose you would be willing to tell my listeners what exactly happened here?"

"Not in the middle of a firefight," Jane stated as she pushed Emily Wong back. "How about this, if we survive, I'll give you access to all unclassified data and even give an exclusive. How does that sound?"

"Looking forward to the talk," Emily enthusiastically agreed as moved to safety, just as the cavalry arrived.

Fist's thugs did not know what hit them when a Vine Grenade landed at the feet of the two thugs at the entrance, holding them in place while two well-placed gunshots killed them. Soon after, John, Velanna, Legion-VII, Trex and an unknown turian rushed in with guns blazing, along with explosives, and both mage and biotic-based powers. In an instant, the thugs lost all their cover and they were caught between two well-trained units of soldiers. It was over with one final explosion from Trex's M-37 Falcon.

With the field cleared, the group made the all-clear sign, as the turian, Garrus, looked at the two bloody bodies on the ground, shot up by civilian and military grade weapons. He recognized the two officers as he made a call to Command about the firefight at Chora's Den with multiple civilian casualties and two officers down. All the while Jane and John's team conferred as the civilians slowly came out of hiding.

"Thanks for the save brother," Jane smiled as her brother rolled his eyes.

"It's no problem Commander, but this is becoming a habit I hope we break for their will be a time when I can't be there to save you from your own mistakes."

"Hey, my team and I could have handled it on our own eventually. In fact we could have taken them out before you came if we had pushed harder than we did, but it would have gotten more civilians killed if we had," Jane explained as John frowned.

"Maybe you should have pushed harder," John stated as Jane glared at her older brother while the veterans of the team rolled their eyes at the same old argument while the newer team members either agreed or gasped in shock.

"This is the not time for our common song and dance brother, especially with reporters around," Jane stated as she looked at Emily Wong, who was busy reporting the aftermath and did not hear John's comment.

John became silent, as he did not need a lecture from Command about speaking his mind in public. Therefore, he was relieved when Garrus appeared to give a report and they switched subjects, "Captain, Commander. I've contacted C-SEC and they'll be here in ten minutes to secure the scene and civilians, and they will give us enough time to talk to Fist."

"Good work officer," John told the officer as Jane's team took notice of the turian.

Jane then looked at her brother with a thousand watt stare, "So Captain, my Captain, will you introduce us to your friend?"

John nodded as he pointed to Garrus, "This is Detective Garrus Vakarian that we've all heard about, and he has agreed to help us since he wants to see justice served, even if it means going against his superiors."

"And you're sure he is not just spying on us for C-Sec?" Ashely Williams asked with a raised eyebrow. "The turians are known to be loyal on a physiological level to the state and their fellow turians."

"Would it help if I swear I am doing this on my own for my people? As Saren is a traitor and a disgrace to all turians! He's a sickly varren who needs to be put down!" Garrus exclaimed in a straight, with a tone so serious that it made Wrex laugh.

"A turian with a sense of true honor and humor, we don't see that every day," Wrex chuckled as he developed a smirk as the turian frowned. He then shrugged as he exclaimed, "Well regardless, I don't think he's lying. Turians are terrible liars and can only lie by not saying anything. I see no reason why we don't trust him to help us, provided he can still be useful."

"And I can be useful, krogan," Garrus growled as he activated his visor. "I can pull up the schematics of the station and ships, both military and civilian class. It's great for telling me when someone is trying to hide something."

"Can it also tell us what we'll be facing?" Tali'Zorah nervously asked Garrus, who responded in chuckle as his eyes lingered a bit on the quarian.

"I can tell you what they tell us during inspections. Outside of this bar is a warehouse, followed by a private room Fist is using as his office. And if I remember correctly, the latter is a panic room with no means of escape."

"Are you sure?" Kaidan asked.

"You would need a high powered mining laser running for several hours to cut a hole out of that room. The Protheans did not skip when it came to building this place," Garrus explained.

"Okay, we've got a plan, now it's time to get to it. Let's go," Jane ordered.

Garrus nodded before turning to the civilians grouped together, "Hello, my name is Officer Garrus Vakarian. C-Sec is on their way and I have your photographs. If you're not here when they arrive, C-Sec will assume you have ties with Fist and most likely will track you down and arrest you. So don't run unless you want your whole life opened to C-Sec when they come after you."

The civilians grumbled as Garrus directed the team to follow him, leaving the civilians to wait for C-Sec. As the non-combatants waited, the heavily armed group approached a door with a simple lock at the end of the bar. It did not take an ounce of Garrus skill to unlock it with a wave of his omni-tool, using standard issued lock picking software used by tech soldiers, aka sharpshooter trained in electronic warfare. Something the dockworkers at the other end of the door would not wish to face with one or two civilian type guns and whatever they could get their hands on, mainly harden-plastic boards and pipes.

With such armament, it was obvious they were brave fools as they stood their ground, "Stop right there, don't come any closer."

"What the hell is this?" Ashely asked aloud.

"Warehouse workers, all the rest of Fist's men must be dead," as Garrus had answered for Lieutenant Williams and she nodded in acceptance while the dockworkers nervously held their ground.

"Stay back or we'll defend ourselves," another threatened as Jane took the time to become the team's diplomate.

"You know, you don't have to do this and lay down your lives for what I am assuming is a horrible boss like Fist. You could just let us pass. After all our business is with him, not you."

"Or you can stay in our way and we will kill you in less time than it takes to pull the trigger, twice. What's it going to be," John added, making sure the uncertain men picked the right path.

They dropped their weapons as the leader agreed, "Yeah, yeah you're right."

They warehouse workers then dispersed, but not before one last man commented, "I didn't like Fist anyway."

"Shepard-Captain, Shepard-Commander, while your strategy may not have been time efficient, it was effective none the less," Legion-VII praised the Shepards while John nodded.

"Glad to meet your approval," John grumbled as Jane looked around the room.

"Keep your eyes open, we don't know if Fist left traps in the warehouse or not," Jane ordered as the team spread out, far enough to expand the groups sight but close enough to respond in an instant if one of the team got in trouble.

Or when one of them made a discovery just as Tali did, "Shepards, I've found something."

The group rushed over to find a balding human on ground with his hands shackled behind his back. He was a filthy man whose grey combat clothing was covered in grime and grease, while his face was covered in bruises. Though not enough to stop Garrus from recognizing him, "It's Harkin."

"Confirmed, that is Harkin-unit, former liaison to C-Sec and CNIS," Legion-VII reported as Harkin, with a face only a mother could love, finally woke up to a blurry world.

It took a few seconds before his eyes bloodshot from heavy drinking cleared enough to see the large group in front of him. He made long glances at Jane, Velanna, Ashely and Tali as his face formed a sly smile as his he spoke in a slurred tone, "Hey babes, you come here often."

Tali and Velanna felt very self-conscious of their bodies while Ashely snarled, "Pig," as Jane counted to ten while Garrus figurative slapped him, "You're on the ground at the mercy of others and the first thing you do is act like a jackass to the people that saved you. You really are at the bottom of all pits Harkin."

"Garrus," Harkin growled as he glared at the turian. "This is all your fault! If you hadn't roughed me up during your interrogation, Fist wouldn't have thought I gave you valuable information and tried to beat me to a pulp!"

"And whose fault was that you had anything to do with Fist?" Garrus asked rhetorically and pushed Harkin into a stead rant.

"Hey, it's not my fault the Confederation or the Citadel doesn't pay me enough for the long hours they put me through. I needed my fix in booze and some lovely company, and they were not willing to help me. In fact they performed a witch hunt on me!" Harkin yelled as others looked slack jawed.

"Really, they went after you like it was a witch hunt?" Trex asked with a twitch as Harkin elaborated.

"Skim a few crew credits off a case; a note was put in my file. Sell a few trinkets that C-Sec and the Confederation would have sold anyway, another note was put in my file. Sell some non-vital information for a few easy credits; another note was put in my file. Being late with some paperwork, another note was put in my file. Losing some transfer papers, another note was put in my goddamn file. It was a goddamn witch hunt!" Harkin exclaimed as the team rolled their eyes.

"I think you got what you deserved, you ass," Ashely Williams added as she looked down at the man who grumbled in response.

"Hey don't you look down on me. You soldiers have it easy. If you shot someone and take their stuff, everyone claps their hands and looks the other way. While I would be forced to fill-out so much paper I would drown in it." Harkin sighed as he stated, "I should have been a soldier."

"Well I am glad you aren't one for I doubt you would make it past boot camp with an attitude like that," Kaidan pointed out, much to Harkin's displeasure.

"Oh stuff it, this ain't any sermon and you're not my priest," Harkin growled as Jane lost her patience.

"Okay enough of this. Do you know for sure if Fist is still here or not?" Jane asked the man.

"Yeah he's still here, waiting in his panic room for you. I suggest you get to it unless you don't want to see his surprise," Harkin laugh as John sighed before he turned to the others.

"Okay, we know Fist is here and we're ready to deal with him. But before that, we have to decide on what we are going to about Harkin!"

"I say we leave him tied up," Trex said with a shrug. "It's what, as you human's say, he deserves for being an A-grade asshole."

Wrex laughed as he put his hands on Trex, "I agree with the kid, let the man stew in his misery."

"But wouldn't that make him our responsibility since he would be our prisoner after we killed Fist," Velanna pointed out with her soft tone, forcing the others reconsider their decision.

"Yeah, I don't want to be responsible for him sir. Let him go and he'll be C-Sec and CNIS's problem again," Ashely pointed.

"Oh thank you so much for that," Garrus deepened as he rolled his eyes.

John did not need any more convincing as he cut Harkin loose with his omni-blade. Harkin then got up and muttered about getting a drink. Kaidan just shook his head as he stated, "That's man is going to die with a bottle in his hand."

"Only if we're lucky," Garrus added as Jane looked at the others.

"Okay, that's enough. I see the door up ahead. Let's deal with Fist, get the evidence we need and be done," Jane suggested and the others complied, moving toward the door.

Within seconds, Legion and Garrus approached the control panel to bypass the doors. John looked over to Tali, "Ensign, see if you can get us some eyes in the room to see what Fist is doing."

"On it Captain," Tali saluted as she came upon a console and began to hack into the system.

The room Fist locked himself in was a fortified bunker of the highest quality. The room was protected by a strong composite, polymer alloy so thick it would take hours to cut through, assuming they had tools designed to burn through it. To make things worse, it was a sealed room, with its own power generator and a smaller scale life-support system found on most long-range starships. That meant with enough supplies, anyone in such a secured room could live there for the rest of their lives. Luckily, there was some vulnerability in its safety systems.

Because the room was sealed, its sensors were dedicated to monitor heat, toxic chemical and atmospheric levels, power from life-support, life signs and so on. Therefore, if the majority of the room was on fire or picked up no life signs, the system would assume the person was in danger or dead and the door would automatically open. A weakness Tali and the others exploited as she quickly gained control of the sensors to find Fist's location in the room. She also found schematics of the room as well as cameras Fist used to record meetings with his business partners should they betray him or try to walk away.

So Tali had a birds eye view, and what she caused her to squeak, invoking Jane to ask, "Tali, what is it?"

"Looks like Fist has taken his security to a new level and he has two military grade dense turrets ready to blast anyone that tries to enter," Tali reported as she showed the team the images from her omni-tool.

She showed a large brutish man with military crew cut was making finale design modifications on two large turrets in the room. Ashely whistled as she remarked, "They look like older models then the ones we used on Eden Prime. They are standard machine gun turrets that fire in a continuous stream against infantry and most animals. I bet the two of them can take down a Geth Prime within thirty seconds."

"We'll need to take those out quickly, otherwise they could be a problem," John stated.

Trex then pulled up a grenade launcher and exclaimed, "I can fire grenades at the Fist and the turrets. That would take care of the problem."

"And could accidently destroy everything else in the room, making all this pointless, Lieutenant," John pointed out. "No we need finesse and I have the prefect idea. Officer Garrus, when you get the door open, you and Ensign Tali sabotage the turrets with your omni-tools, preventing them from firing while Lieutenant Kaidan and I will use overload on them, causing them to explode. From there, Lieutenant Legion-VII will help Lieutenant Commander O'Connell and Commander Shepard to capture Fist. The rest will act as backup in case the plan fails."

The others nodded in understanding as Garrus and Legion-VII rewrote the environmental computer code, causing the sensors to read the entire room was on fire and open the door. From there, they followed John's plan to the exact detail. Tali and Garrus rushed in as Fist activated the turrets and disabled them with a sabotage function from their omni-tools virus programs. Kaidan and John then overloaded them, causing them to explode with Fist caught in the middle. His shields were taken down instantly and he was temporary blinded by the blast. The crime boss was unable to see his weapons taken away by Legion-VII or the hex that formed under his feet until it was too late. He realized it was over when he fell down screaming in pain as an ice shard broke through his armor and imbedded itself deep into his leg. Fist could not surrender fast enough as he laid bleeding on the ground.

Defeated, the crime boss was picked up and forcibly pushed into his couch by the krogans while Tali went to Fist's computer to get the information they wanted. Fist looked at the quarian with a quivering heart until John and Jane forced him to look right into their eyes. He raised his hands in fear as he stuttered, "W-w-wh-who a-are you? W-w-what do you want?"

"Who we are doesn't matter, for either you'll be in jail or dead," John told the scared crime boss. "What we want is very simple. All your dealings with a certain rogue SPECTRE named Saren?"

"I-I don't know what you're talking about," Fist tried to lie before he screamed out in pain as Wrex squeezed his shoulder.

"Please don't lie to us. My brother and my two large friends behind you are not in the mood of you trying to cover your ass. Your guilt is obvious and C-Sec is going to take you away for life in prison. So please no more grandstanding and tell us the truth," Jane pleaded with a tone that made Fist think she would not care if he died.

A tone that convinced him to tell her the truth, "Okay, I admit it. I had dealings with Saren. It was just strictly business. He knew I could get him things on the Citadel that the SPECTRE's would not be authorize to get without some scrutiny. So I sold him the things he needed, and that's the majority of my business with him."

"You said the majority of your business. What was the rest of your business with him like?" Jane asked as she pulled out her M-77 Paladin Pistol, examining it as if to decide whether she wanted to use it on Fist or not.

This scared the man as he tried to backtrack his words with a carefully worded lie, "It was a slip of a tongue, I meant that was all the business I did for him."

A line no one believed as Fist screamed again when Wrex squeezed his shoulder as he growled out at him, "Don't lie to us!"

"I-I-I," Fist stammered as John frowned.

"You're hiding something. What is it?" John asked in a tone that would make a wraith quiver in fear.

Fist was shaking in his armor when Tali yelled out, "I think I know sir." Gaining their attention as Tali was getting long-range communication network Fist setup to play a message he made a day ago. "I was able to break the encryption he had for computer and was downloading his entire corresponding message when I found something you may want to see."

Then with a few taps on her omni-tool, two duel screens appeared. One was Fist while the other was an asari deep within the matriarch stage that was distinct, even among asari, with her light blue skin starting to darken. This matched with her black dress black crown on top and black lips that formed into a frown as her blue eyes starred into a very nervous Fist.

The real Fist paled as the one on the recording bowed to the woman, "_My lady, it's good to see you again. How may I serve Saren today?_"

"_Simple, Saren wishes for these people to disappear_," the asari stated as a list of targets appeared before Fist. Fist read the list as the asari continued to speak. "_Most are inconsequential as they were just test subjects for Saren's military projects. However, the two at the very top are priority for they hold valuable information that Saren cannot allow the Council to know_."

In the recording Fist scrolled up the list until he reached the top two targets, Captain John Shepard and at the very top was Commander Jane Sheppard. Fist looked at the asari as though she was insane, "_Are you mad! The last thing I need is to get the Confederation involve. I am having a hard enough time keeping ahead of C-Sec! I don't need the military of the Citadel and the Confederation after me due to killing two high ranking officers in the Confederation Navy._"

The asari for her own part remained calm and collected as Fist ranted at her. She then tilted her head and gave a small smile as she spoke in a regal tone, _"Have you ever faced Asari Commandoes before. Few humans have and lived to tell the tale,_" the asari admitted as Fist shivered in fear before she gave Fist her ultimatum. "_I'll make this simple, either you hire someone to kill them, or I will have my Asari Commandoes do it and kill you as well for becoming a lose end to cut. Do we understand each other?_"

"_Perfectly my lady_," Fist gulped in real life and in the recording as John and Jane turned to the man with distain.

"_I look forward to hearing your success. May the Goddess embrace you_," the asari bowed before transmission was cut, leaving Tali to continue her report.

"Fist made contact someone called the Black Kahunas for the mission to kill you ma'am, sir."

"The Black Kahunas!" Wrex exclaimed as he let out a sharp whistle. "That's a group I do not want to tangle with again."

John, Jane, and Trex scolded as Kaidan looked up to ask, "Who are the Black Kahunas?"

Trex sighed as he explained for the group, "The Black Kahunas are a group of elcor mercenary bands that were mostly seen in the Attican Traverse. They are known to use high explosive to kill their targets and do not care about collateral damage. They are not to be trifled with"

"Wait, you're talking about the same elcor that explain what they are feeling as they talk since we can't understand their subtle movements, as well as being as slow as a sloth," Ashely asked as Wrex chuckled in response.

"Don't let the elcor fool you. They may not be the fastest species, but they are strongest thanks to their homeworld being a high gravity world so strong that it could kill them if they fell over. They could crush a krogan if they wanted to, and they have a hide thick enough that many caliber of guns can't penetrate without putting a dozen rounds in them at least," Wrex laughed as Ashely eyes widen in shock. "Combined with heavy armor, shields and a VI controlled rocket launcher and machine gun turret, the Black Kahunas are a force to be reckoned with," Wrex added as John approached the shaking crime boss, who felt like death had come for him.

With a speed that seemed faster than a biotic charge, John quickly grabbed Fist and brought him to his face, "Where did you send your hit squad!?"

"To Market District on these Wards," Fist stammered out in fear. "I was told that the witnesses that Saren wanted dead are there. I've just gotten the confirmation and they are moving to attack them, if you hurry, you can save them."

John threw Fist down on the ground as the team tried to make contact with the witness's guards as John looked at Fist, his hand on his gun, ready to kill. He barely heard they could not reach the guards protecting their witness when he pulled out his rapid fire, N7 Eagle pistol as Fist cowered. He was about to execute him when Jane stopped him.

"No brother!" Jane yelled as she held her brother's arm firmly within her grasp.

"What are you doing?" John asked in frustration as he glared at his sister for answers.

"I'm stopping you from performing another renegade act that would get you investigated by the CNIS, again. We don't need to kill an unarmed prisoner."

John growled as Jane allowed him to lower his arm to place his gun back on his hip, "So what do you suggest we do? Let him go?"

"Please brother, I am not stupid to let a notorious criminal go as a show of mercy when we have someone here that can arrest him," Jane grumbled as she turned to only turian in the room.

Her face formed into an infectious smile as she moved in close to nervously smiling officer, "Garrus, buddy ol' pal. Do you have some nice cuffs to give to our friend on the ground? I am sure C-Sec would love to get their hands on Fist here to learn every naughty thing he has done and of course, who he did it with."

Fist turned paler then an albino, as he looked up to a smiling Garrus as he held out some electronic cuffs, "Sure, whatever you ask."

Garrus worked like a flash as he cuffed Fist's arms behind his private pole-dancing pole as Tali downloaded the last bit of information for the Confederation forces and CNIS. With the prisoner secured for C-Sec and the data in hand, John ordered the team to move out. He had to hope they would arrive to the Ward's Market District in time.

**Location: Serpent Nebula/Window/Citadel/Wards: Market District**

**Human Date: February 5, 2183**

Walking across the crowded hallways was a cybernetic, insectoid creature that everyone stepped out of the way, giving it a needed wide birth created by its four long legs. A wide birth created not out of fear, but respect as the living green machine paid no heed to the people around it as it moved with a purpose. Its purpose a small console activated by the green insect as its four arms with four long fingers on each arm typed away as data moved across the screen. Its big black eyes on its large head swayed on its long neck as it read the popped up hologram screen with a dedicated focus that made it oblivious to the world. So much so it did not notice or care as two figures stared at its cybernetic backpack with a large antenna on its back as they slowly talk to each other.

"So that is a keeper the codex on these omni-tools talked about," Sten stated as he looked at the keeper with great interest.

"Yeah," Sarah nodded as she looked thoughtfully. "Surprised we haven't seen one sooner, the Citadel is practically crawling with them." Sarah then shrugged, "Of course, the Citadel is the only place you find them as they are born and bred to maintain this place until they die and degrade. They are amazing work of engineering that were made before the asari, the oldest existing species, even knew how to write."

"Impressive, they are truly what all qunari strive to be," Sten stated before he walked off towards the rail.

"What do you mean?" Sarah asked as she followed Sten.

"The qunari believe that we only have one life, one purpose. In which we are assigned by Tamassrans, the priests of our society," Sten explained to Sarah. "They determine what we best through genealogy, tests and exanimate, and train us at a young age to be the best in our role within the Qun."

Sarah whistled in understanding, "That's very different from my childhood… Um when I was a little girl… my adolescent years," Sarah added when she notice when Sten did not understand.

"Of course it's different; you were raised by humans after all." Sten had stated as a matter fact before he turned to Sarah to ask, "What was your 'adolescent' years like? I am curious what it's like being raised by humans."

"It's difficult to explain," Sarah admitted. "The people who adopted me and raised me, my parents were loving men that took great care of me and supported me. Even when I went into the military, which they had strong opinions about, I still talk to them whenever I get the chance."

Sarah smiled fondly of the memories before she remembered not so good times as they walked to the edge overlooking the market district. "But other times, it was difficult. The colony I grew up on wasn't diverse and I stood out like a cat in room filled with dogs. A few of the children loved to remind me how different I was and often mocked me for my horns."

A painful memory that still torment her to this day, which is why Sarah took a brief pause then looked down. It calmed her down seeing Adam acting as chaperone for Leliana, Merrill and Varric as they got a crash course on their omni-tools. It was a welcome distraction but one that did not last as Sten waited for her to continue to speak, which she reluctantly continued, "Though school was worst. During my first and only year, I was struggling not to fail every class because I couldn't focus on multiple subjects."

"Multiple subjects?" Sten asked with a raised eyebrow before Sarah explained schools to Sten.

"Most humans often learn best with multiple subjects spread throughout a year as it helps them retain what they have learned and their schools are setup for such learning. Therefore, in the first year of school, I was learning math, science, literacy, history, physical education and had an artistic class, which in my case was painting. I could barely focus on two of them and it hurt my grades in the process."

"Why do they emphasize so many subjects?" Sten asked.

"Humans believe in individual freedom and as history shows that those who are educated have the freedom to decide not only their life path, but also avoid losing their freedom," Sarah explained before she got back on subject. "Knowing that didn't help me much as I still struggled until my parents took me to a psychiatrist, who realized my problem, that I could not learn more than two subjects at a time despite having a better memory then most humans. Therefore, I was homeschooled until I went to the Confederation military academy, which was prepared to educate every species in the Confederation. I graduated soon after and was quickly recruited by the First Battalion for my communication skill and able to focus pass any interference. And as they say it, the rest is history."

Sarah then shrugged her shoulders as she stated, "I may not live a focused life, but I live a good one that prepared me to be what I am today and find a purpose that I love."

"Then I'm glad you found your purpose in life," Sten smiled in way that made Sarah feel special as she returned that smile.

"Could you tell me more about my people?" Sarah asked and Sten agreed as Adam continued to give a tour to Leliana, Varric and Merrill.

That was until Leliana and Varric saw a special item in a hunter's shop run by a hanar, a pinkish blue jellyfish like creature who unlike earth jellyfish, had a slug body with two humps near the head instead of antennas. It was a creature that normally did not associate with hunting, as they need contra-gravitic levitation packs to hold their body up in non-aquatic environments, but are generally polite as it greeted them with a warm, synthetic voice.

"Greetings customers and welcome to Rodam Expeditions, where this one's owner offers many different types of weapons and traveling packages for the customer to explore. Is there a particular item or package of interest the customer wishes to see or hear more about?"

"Yes, I am very curious about the bow and arrows you have on the wall," Leliana pointed to the compound bow on the wall.

The hanar turned to look at the bow before it turned to Leliana, "This one see's you have an eye for quality. The bow you see is a MB-5 Compound Bow, made for hunters who want to hunt like their ancestors."

"Like who?" Varric asked the hanar out of curiosity who looked back confused. "I mean who would want to hunt like their ancestors when they have weapons that make it so much easier to kill and less risky to end one's life."

"Well at first, it was mainly humans who still live within tribes, but as of late, many hunters took it up as a challenge to do so as well, and this one's employers were more than willing to help them experience the hunt."

"I noticed it's not your standard bow, is it?" Leliana asked.

"No it isn't your standard bow for that would be foolish and dangerous," the hanar admitted. "There are many different animals that have skin thick enough that it would take military grade weapons to penetrate. Even an old enough pyjak and varren would take a high power weapon to kill them in one shot. Which is why the MB-5 Compound Bow is made of material that is nearly indestructible, as well as an added mass effect wheeled generators and accelerator at the base to makes it a weapon comparable to a sniper riffle."

Leliana had stars in her eye as Adams looked to interest, "If I can take it apart, I could possibly figure out how to modify some other weapons to be used with it we have collected since we picked you guys up."

"This one is pleased that you appreciate the MB-5 Compound Bow but this one is forced to remind you that you cannot manufacture weapons similar to the compound bow, unless you purchase a Rodam Expeditions' License," the hanar reminded Adams. "Only after you purchase the license and weapon schematics may you not only manufacture the weapon, but you can also buy additional upgrades for the weapon."

"How much for the license and weapon?" Adam asked the hanar, not notice the bobbling Merrill had wonder to a nearby shop belonging to the Sirta Foundation, a medical store that also sells all kinds of genetic, biotic and mage implants.

The hanar was about to comment on the price when they heard a loud rumbling outside. They turned to see four large elcor had made themselves known. The elcor are giant creatures that resembled short, big-mouthed earth elephants, minus the trunks and tusk, while having hands for front feet. Their hands (feet) were balled as they walked slowly on all four. Standing taller than a krogan, the elcor can be intimidating if they wanted to be and these elcor were no exception. Especially since they wore heavy armor, and they had VI controlled machineguns and rocket launchers on their backs. Everyone nervously looked at them as the elcor made clear their intention.

"With a threatening tone: we are the Black Kahunas and we have come to kill you all!" one of the elcor said before they opened fire.

Adam's group quickly ducked with most of the locals just before the explosions happened. Others were not so lucky as their flaming bodies, as well as glass and plastic spread across the floor. Only the Citadel's wall and its armored glass held as people desperately used them as cover. It was that moment, the four Confederation troops shadowing the locals from Thedas appeared and opened fired. This drew the elcor's attention as they returned fired on the unfortunate soldiers from the Confederation. While the soldiers were well trained compared to most soldiers across the galaxy, they were still security officers from the _CSS Normandy_ and were consider average soldiers instead of elite troops the First Battalion frequently used in battle. Therefore, the krogan, two humans and geth shock trooper were overwhelmed as they worked to take down an elcor by concentrating their shots on one of them.

They were able to kill one Black Kahuna before the elcor blew the last soldier, a krogan, into burning chunks of flesh. The elcor chuckled slowly before they turned to Adam and his group's location as they opened fire. People panicked and died as several returned fire with weapons they carried or acquired from shops. It was chaos, Sarah and Sten realized from their hiding spots, and one Sten knew the others were not going to survive as Leliana and Varric could not get a shot in with their acquired M-6 Carnifex or Adam's M-5 Phalanx. Therefore, he got out his sword and snuck towards the Black Kahunas, as Sarah yelled at him to come back.

"Idiot!" Sarah exclaimed as she pulled out her M-5 Phalanx and tried to stop him but was stopped by a large explosion below her.

An explosion caused by half a dozen rockets aimed at a wall Merrill hid behind before it went up in smoke. The elf had tried to help her friends in any way she could by using hexes and lightening spells, and she made some progress, just not enough to make a difference compared to an implanted mage. However, it was enough to get her noticed as the elcor opened fire on the wall she used as cover. Luckily, she noticed the danger and ran. Therefore, instead of killing her, the explosion sent the elf deeper into the shop while chunks of rocks had hit some sensitive equipment. One read, '_Warning: Containment Failure_' as Merrill slowly rose up when she noticed that time seemed to have stop.

Nothing moved, not the elcor trying to kill everyone, not her friends fighting for their lives. Confused, she asked aloud, "What is this? Am I dead?"

"No child, it's just the powers of a demon that causing time to slow down for you," answered a bored voice that all of sudden appeared in front of Merrill. It was an elf so bland he might as well be some background human if he had not spoken with power and laziness, "A demon known as-me."

Merrill backed up in fear toward a crate filled with implants already put in injections as she shook in fear, "You're a sloth demon, aren't you."

"Correct," the demon said in a drawl. "Do not worry; it would be too much effort to possess you."

"What?" Merrill asked in shock as the demon elaborated.

"If I do take you, others will hunt me down and kill me. Which means a life of fighting to control your body and that would be too much of an effort to keep up. Especially as there are other options to consider."

"What other options?" Merrill asked.

"Your friends and yourself are in trouble and need a more powerful mage to save them and I can help you," the sloth demon stated as it pointed to a crate behind Merrill with a tired expression. "Behind you are implants that if injected in the back of the neck will allow you mortal to live the life of a magician. If you agree to inject yourself with it, I will live in you as partners and give you the power you need to survive."

Merrill, suspicious of the demon, asked for more answers, "That's all sounds fine. But what do you get out of it if you don't mind me asking?"

"I get to experience what it's like to be mortal without having to do anything," the demon admitted with a yawn. "I get to lay around in your mind, and do nothing outside of the occasional talk or when you need help. Why wouldn't I agree to such a deal?"

Merrill was still skeptical until the eminent danger seemed to catch-up with her. She soon felt fear as she watched the elcor turn towards her friends, bringing their rocket launchers to bear. She did not need any more prompting as she quickly took a vial and injected herself as she yelled, "Okay, I accept."

"Very well, now let Fargo take care of the rest so I can sleep," Fargo stated as he fussed with Merrill in a blinding light, the first sign that tables turned against the Black Kahunas.

And wasting no time, a dozen roots busted through metal and pulled the elcor down, squeezing their shields, weapons and elcor themselves to death. The locals, not caring how it happened, took the chance to run for it or take their revenge using makeshift weapons found from debris on the floor or using the weapons they had on them. Only Leliana, Varric and Adam noticed the hexes used to help weaken the elcor shields when Merrill appeared with a large grin on her face.

"Hello," Merrill waved in excitement as she spoke like a hyperactive child on candy. "Did you see how I knocked down those elcor? I mean I wasn't expecting that but there are a lot of plants under there. Don't know why, it felt like a mini-forest. Can we go visit it when were done here? I like to go see it. I bet it would be nice. What do you think-um… why are you all staring at me like that?"

"Merrill, what in Maker's name happened to you?" Leliana asked with wide eyes.

"Oh it was amazing. I thought I was killed when time seemed to stop after that explosion near me," Merrill explained faster than a hamster on wheels. "Turns out it was demon named Fargo who wanted to make a deal. I didn't trust it at first but it pointed out the mage implants behind me and I injected myself in the back of the neck. We fussed and I was able to save everyone and he gave me a boost before he went to take a nap in my head." Merrill explained as a panic Adam examined the implant with his omni-tool.

Adam's sigh of relief was Leliana and Varric's relief, "The implant is stable but could use some modification and a military upgrade. Doctor Chakwas should be able to perform the surgery needed once we get back to the _Normandy_."

"Okay, that sounds good," Merrill added before she yawned.

"Daisy, do you feel alright?" Varric asked the young elf who was lowering herself to the ground.

"I feel tired all of a sudden," Merrill admitted as Adam shook his head.

"I had a feeling this would happen," Adam had stated as he sighed. "I am no medical expert, but I read about these implants, and I think Merrill is becoming fatigued." Adam sighed as he stated, "If Merrill was implanted when she was a child, when her synapses were developing, she would adapt quicker then she would as an adult. As it is, she'll be feeling fatigued for days, possible weeks. I am amazed you are still awake, really."

"I may have borrowed energy from someone else to be as active as I have been," Merrill yawned. "And now I'm sleepy and losing control of the roots."

"What!?" Leliana asked as she rose up to see the Black Kahunas were starting to break free.

In fact, the leader of the group had already broken enough vines to be able to grab one of the civilians, a salarian and squeezed them to the point their whole body crackled and pop within the elcor's one hand; effectively putting real fear in the rest of the civilians that were now running. Leliana realized she had little time left before the elcor started to fire on them again when she grabbed the MB-5 Compound Bow and its arrows before she ran out, took aim, and fired. She watched it soar as it went through the air before it broke the elcor's weaken shields and continued through it armor. She watched as is it went through one of the elcor's eye sockets and went deep into his brain. She had killed the lead elcor and the other two were pissed. She saw they had freed themselves and ran for cover from the machine guns, just as Sten made his appearance.

Before Leliana killed the lead Elcor, Sten had moved in silence to be directly above the elcor for a sneak attack with his sword. Silently and with precession, he worked to be above the trapped elcors breaking free from the roots created by Merrill. He waited until after Leliana's kill to make his move. With a giant leap, Sten used both his strength and gravity to strike with a slash. The effect was obvious as the elcor he targeted turned out to be the only female elcor, evident by her scream of pain as Sten had not only broke her weaken shields, but cut into her armor.

Unfortunately, Sten did not kill the elcor, as she grabbed the shocked qunari and slammed him into the ground, effectively breaking several bones and temporary paralyzed him. Not that Sten noticed at first as he screamed out in pain as the elcor raised her front legs. The elcor was about to give the killing blow when a biotic push sent her tumbling into a wall. Sten could not believe his luck as he turned to see John Shepard, Kaidan and Wrex had come to his rescue as the female elcor shook off their attack.

Angered by the newcomers interference, the Black Kahuna got on all fours to take aim with her rockets at the three biotics. She then pulled the trigger, expecting to blast them when she heard a loud winning sound. She did not have the chance to see the quarian had sabotaged her weapons when they exploded on her back, taking half of her back with it when she fell to the ground dead, leaving only one elcor remaining. An elcor who knew he was finished when spells like leach and hexes from Velanna, coupled by shots from Garrus and Ashely Williams's sniper rifles, took down his shield quicker then it could comprehend.

He knew it was the end, but he planned to go down fighting, preparing to open fire on the new arrivals when he got a fireball to the face. He howled out in pain as he felt a second spell hit him, one that started to make him feel bloated by a spiritual death spell. He did not know why the second spell was cast on him until he looked up to see Jane Shepard swiped across his neck with her sword. Blood poured out of him quickly as he fell to his knees, in pain and shock as he fell down to his stomach.

He looked at the hard woman to say in a gargled voice, "With a disappointed and angered filled curse: Damn!" before he lay down due to blood loss. The elcor bled to death before Jane ran to help Sten.

Sten, stunned to see such a creature fell at the hands of the woman before with new eyes. Eyes filled with respect as he nodded to the woman as best he could, "Thank you for saving me Commander."

"Glad I could help, just wished we came sooner to help you," Jane told Sten as the qunari looked into the human eye as she injected through her omni-tool, the miracle gel known as medi-gel, a human invention that seal wounds and temporary patch broken bones so he could move somewhat.

"I will heal in time, and when I do, I will help you in your mission to stop Saren. This I swear," Sten promised as Varric, Leliana and a tired Merrill came to the scene.

"So will the three of us," Varric stated with a smile. "We're not about to leave you hanging and maybe payback whoever try to kill us. So here we are, if you allow us to join."

"Well you are skilled and could be an asset even if you may not be able to help as quickly as you like," Jane noted as Merrill yawned. "But I don't why not if you think its best and I think my brother will turn down some extra hands to help."

"Especially with a chest like mine," Varric stated as he puffed up to show his burly chest. The group laughed as C-Sec finally arrived to cover the scene. The path was set for all the souls that will call the _Normandy_ home. May fate look out for them in darker times.

**Finale done, sorry for the long delay but I was sentenced to a hospital for a one in a million chance that laid me up for more than a month. Just glad I'm finally done. Well, almost, that is. **

**Bonus Scene**

"How much do you want for the Compound Bow?" Leliana asked the shopkeeper as he slowly got out of cover as C-Sec gave the all clear.

"This one offers it for free for you and your team since you helped in saving this one's life," the hanar told the young woman.

"Great and how much do you want for the license and blueprints?" Adam asked, as the hanar looked thoughtful.

"This one is willing to negotiate," the hanar said as the world returned to normal for the business jellyfish. All was well.

**Author Note**

**A) You know, I can see why people view Ashely as a racist, but I don't think she was in canon. If anything, I think she was a nationalist, who separates powers by species much like how we separate people by their native country and replace the word 'aliens' by content. This is proven by the fact she was protective of Tali and didn't view Tali as a security threat. As opposed to the turians who were once enemies, the krogans who are assumed to be criminals by military regulation, and an asari who is the daughter of an ally of Saren. Not to say that was good thing, but it's not racism, yet.**

**B) Added to Cerberus and Other Organization Codex (New Name) Cerberus: Ground, Air and Space Vehicles, and Mercenary Band: The Black Kahunas, and added to the Weapons and Equipment Codex the MB-5 Compound Bow and MB-10 Crossbow.**

**1) Talk about an intense chapter; hope you like it, especially with Emily Wong reporting it for you. We really need more reporters like then the junk on TV, oh well, we can only hope. **

**2) You know, I don't know why letting Fist go is the only option over death. I mean wouldn't the smart thing to do is arrest him and leave him for C-Sec (Paragon). Oh well, that is fixed in this story. **

**3) The Black Kahunas loosely are based off the Big Kahunas in a fanfic that went from bad to good to bad again, Mass Effect Reloaded. **

**4) Really wanted to end with Udina but the chapter was getting too long and decided to stop. **

**5) The characters will not all be available at the start due to injuries and such, so do not expect them to immediately be involved because they were in this chapter. **

**Character Stats**

Name and Rank: Ms. Leliana (cadet)

Species: human

Class: rogue trained in tech

Special: bard

Melee Weapon: molecular bladed daggers

Grenades: cryo grenades

Kinetic Weapons: MB-5 Compound Bow, N7 Valiant, &amp; M-6 Carnifex

Ammo: inferno rounds

**Next**

Name and Rank: First of the Keeper Merrill (cadet)

Species: elf

Class: balanced magician (mage)

Special: keeper spells and power derives from a sloth demon named Fargo

Melee Weapon: molecular bladed staff

Grenades: vine grenades

Kinetic Weapons: Arc Pistol (power amplifier), &amp; Geth Plasma SMG (power amplifier)

Ammo: particle plasma rounds

**Next**

Name and Rank: Sten of the Beresaad (cadet)

Species: qunari

Class: berserker (soldier)

Melee Weapon: molecular bladed great sword

Grenades: sticky grenade

Kinetic Weapons: N7 Typhoon (heavy barrel, omni-blade &amp; Stability Damper), Reegar Combine, &amp; Blood Pack Punisher (heavy barrel &amp; heat sink)

Ammo: cryo rounds

**Next**

Name and Rank: Mr. Varric (cadet)

Species: dwarf

Class: rogue trained in tech

Special: cloaking generator

Melee Weapon: dual molecular bladed daggers

Grenades: flash bang grenades

Kinetic Weapons: MB-10 Crossbow, &amp; M-6 Carnifex

Ammo: explosive rounds


	7. Delay

A Terrible Delay

Hello, this is RAW666 posting a update, I am sorry to announce this but Mass Dragon Effect will be furthered delayed. I was almost done with the chapter I planned to release this month but somehow, my files got corrupted and I lost them. Now, I have to redo the chapter and rebuild my name list and plot lines combined I am moving to a new full time engineering job, I won't have time to redo it. So this story is now official on hiatus for a at least four to six months. I am sorry about the delay, and I hope you all understand. In the mean time, I will be updating my Naruto story as its files were saved.


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